Lately, the headlines have been scary. Unemployment is increasing. There are concerns from the presidential candidates. Real estate values are sagging and foreclosures are skyrocketing. And, premier companies – like Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) – have raised billions of dollars to deal with heavy losses.

So, if the economy is slowing down, how can your business deal with things?

Let's take a look:

Deal with hidden costs: When looking at expense items, some might seem small. But it's often the case that these items – in aggregate – can turn into a big deal.

According to Tom Sharples, president of Qorvus Systems: "Typical small- or medium-sized businesses that have been around for a few years can find duplicative costs: unused cell-phone contracts that continue to rack up charges, subscriptions to services associated with long-departed employees and often all sorts of legacy junk that no one even remembers ordering, but that you're still paying for every month."

Kohl's Corp. (NYSE: KSS) said this week that it will be "certifying" more than 80 if its retail locations in 28 states under a program that recognizes building design as environmentally sound. In other words, Kohl's is becoming green, at least environmentally speaking.

Beginning a year from now, Kohl's will open the first of its stores that will be certified under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. From late in 2008 to 2009, the company will be opening new locations that conform to LEED standards for environmental sustainability. This will give Kohl's a leg up as one of the very first retailers to adopt LEED standards in the field of retail. The standards are no joke: site planning, water management, energy use, material use, air quality and innovation in the design process for overall conservation.

Companies that are loathe to go green should take Kohl's under review as a case study. Not only does going green (under a national certified process, no less) buy a huge amount of PR with an eco-conscious buying public, but the hard costs that can be saved (and gasp, be measured too!) add up to a win-win for everyone. I'd expect more retailers to be trumpeting green initiatives in the near future, and especially with new locations where implementations are far easier than with existing retail location designs.

AOL Money & Finance recently provided us with an insightful article regarding the current and future condition of our nation's government-administered retirement system. That article, written by Richard Wolf for USA Today, was as good an explanation of the current state of the Social Security funding horror that I've ever read. What Mr. Wolf failed to hammer home was the fact that this situation isn't really news. I officially entered the manufacturing work force in 1979, and I'll tell you what folks, I knew at that time that the Social Security system would most likely be nothing to me but a tax on my income. I didn't expect I'd ever get a dime from SS then, and I still don't.

Honestly now, why not just stop howling about it and accept the reality of the whole mess? Those clowns in DC have tangled our courts, hamstrung our unions, disemboweled our public schools, castrated our military, flattened our industrial base and they're doing a fine job of bankrupting our retirement system. Did you really expect any different? Did you think that a government riddled with millionaire businessmen and back-room lawyers would vote themselves a wage freeze until they got things straightened out for the rest of us? HA! I'm just glad that I'm able to work two jobs so I can afford to pay my full state and federal tax burdens and still have the $2,000 it will cost me to heat my tiny home this winter. Life is good.

Until and unless there are some drastic changes in our nation's capital, in the form of an independent president with stones, nothing is going to change. We'll hear the same old tired rhetoric from the same old twisted mouths with the same pantie-waisted results and all the while they'll take a couple percent more from your hand each year. We're a once-great nation that's been diluted with government lies in pursuit of global socialism and they're not going to stop the carnage until we're a cashless society with every virtual dollar passing thorough government hands between the time you earn it and the time you spend it in a government-accredited manner. Yeah, it's an ugly picture, but it's the picture they're painting in the chambers of our government right now.

Where are Ross Perot and Jimmy Hoffa when you need them?

Earlier this month, Green Progress News reported that Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) was teaming up with the city of Rialto, California, in the construction of a system to take the greasy waste water and sludge generated by restaurants and transform it into a usable energy source. The team is using the impending necessity of waste-water treatment facility expansion for Rialto to take advantage of construction expense outlays that would have been expected anyway.

Fats, oils, and grease that are routinely sent out as waste from restaurants, and that currently go directly to landfills will instead be deposited at the Chevron/Rialto facility, which shall be the recipient of the waste hauler's "tipping fees" also. Tipping fees are simply the haulers' cost for emptying their loads. Typically, all that restaurant waste, and the potential trapped within it, ferments in our landfills, creating methane gas, most of which ends up in our atmosphere unless it's burned off immediately. The Rialto/Chevron project will instead process these wastes utilizing an organic matter "digester," producing methane for conversion into hydrogen, which can then be used to generate electricity.

The financial angles on this project will present some noticeable impact both in expenditure and returns. It is estimated it shall cost a bit over $15 million to build the system and bring it to operational status. When completed, the project will become eligible for a $4.05 million rebate on the fuel-cell plant cost from California's Self-Generation Incentive Program. The balance of the costs will reportedly be recovered through energy cost savings, and there are no expected taxpayer costs. Additionally, the system will be utilizing a bit less than 1,000 kilowatts of generating capacity to provide baseload power, which should assist in keeping consumer electricity costs stable. Grace Vargas, Rialto's mayor, has stated: "It's a 'win' for multiple stakeholders -- our city taxpayers, restaurants, grease haulers, and the environment."

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC), UAL Corp (UAUA), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Darden Restaurants (DRI) and the food industry were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) to Hold from Sell with a $36 target to reflect the Dolan's bid for the company.

• Credit Suisse upgraded shares of UAL Corp (NASDAQ: UAUA) to Outperform from Neutral citing valuation and capacity reductions.

• Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Lehman Brothers citing valuation and potential upside in the pharma business.

• Bear Stearns raised Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) to Outperform from Peer Perform citing the announcement of the divestiture of Smokey Bones, which takes away a drag on earnings.

• Wachovia upgraded the food industry to Overweight from Equal Weight, saying food companies are beginning to drive higher prices through the supply chain and yields look attractive.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Susquehanna upgraded Healthways, Inc (NASDAQ: HWAY) to Positive from Neutral.

• Matrix USA raised Waste Connections, Inc (NYSE: WCN) to Hold from Sell.

• Buckingham raised DSW Inc (NYSE: DSW) to Accumulate from Neutral with a $46 target.

• Dusa Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NASDAQ: DUSA) was upgraded to Hold from Sell at Roth Capital.

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Cemex ADS (NYSE: CX) to Buy from Hold with a $41 target.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

On April 26, 2007, Allied Waste Industries (NYSE: AW) announced yet another waste-to-gas project in their continuing effort to put a dent in America's dependence on petroleum fuels. The newest methane production project is being undertaken in concert with Ameresco, Inc., Columbia Water & Light, and the State of Missouri. It is expected that the methane recovery project situated at the Jefferson City Landfill in Jefferson City, Missouri, will produce more than 3 megawatts of electricity. That's enough wattage to power up to two thousand homes. Additionally, heat generated at the facility will be used to power two Missouri prisons.

The story as reported by Green Progress News indicates growing trash conversion interests for Allied Waste. To me, this signals excellent long-term prospects for growth and sustainability for the company. Donald W. Slager, president and chief operating officer for Allied Waste, stated: "With over a dozen alternative-energy projects in the various stages of approval and development, we expect that our portfolio will continue to grow in the future." Do these types of trash-conversion projects offer long-term profitability? Given their growing popularity I would like to think so, but experts in the field indicate that the conversion of trash to usable energy and the associated compounds produced through the process is a science that is still early in its learning curve. An enlightening discussion on the subject is presented by the Science to Life blog.

I tend to believe that investment in these types of ventures should for now remain restricted to simple methane-capture propositions, such as those being utilized by Allied Waste. There are some very futuristic developments on the horizon, and as with any budding technological field there is much yet to be learned and confirmed. Governments and industry are steadily pushing to find the holy grail of successful waste conversion, and there are some promising developments in the works, but it's all just science for now and there's little to find in practical use.

Perhaps the Flux Capacitor is just around the corner but I'm not holding my breath just yet.