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Today’s Lane Links

By Lorie Hailey
Associate Editor

Amazon announced today it will open a 70,000-square-foot customer service facility in Winchester, which will create about 550 full-time jobs and 600 seasonal jobs by 2017, reports the Winchester Sun.

The customer service center is expected to open in late summer at the Winchester Plaza during construction of the permanent facility at the industrial park. The permanent facility is expected to open in 2013, the paper reports.

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One of the state’s Medicaid managed-care companies has told Baptist Healthcare System that it wants to renegotiate its contract with the chain, which has hospitals in Lexington, Louisville, La Grange, Paducah and Corbin, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Coventry Cares notified Baptist Healthcare System on Friday that it wanted to renegotiate, Ruth Ann Childers, a spokeswoman for Baptist, told the Herald-Leader. If an agreement cannot be reached by Nov. 1, when the current contract expires, Coventry has told the health care system that it would allow the contract to expire, Childers said.

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Gasoline prices likely won’t set any records this summer, thanks to a recent drop in the price of oil, the Associated Press reports.

The government on Tuesday slashed its forecast for average gas prices to $3.79 per gallon for the summer driving season. That’s down from an initial estimate of $3.95 and below 2008’s record average of $3.80, the AP reports.

The Energy Information Administration’s revised forecast is encouraging news for the economy. Some economists blame high pump prices for so-so consumer spending this year. They were also seen as a factor in the loss of 35,000 retail jobs in February and March.

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Downtown Louisville lost about 5,000 jobs in the past three years, reports The Louisville Courier-Journal. The center city added only about 100 housing units last year, and the number of downtown permanent residents has hovered around 4,000 for several years.

Despite those concerns, most other indicators are pointed in the right direction, and downtown is well-positioned to continue to be the area’s and the state’s economic engine, officials said Tuesday at the second annual conference titled “The State of the Downtown: Economic Realities and Public Perceptions.”

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Toyota announced Tuesday it will increase annual engine assembly capacity of 4-cylinder engines by more than 100,000 at its plant in Georgetown, Ky. The increase will begin August 2013. The approximately $30 million project will create about 80 new jobs.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky (TMMK) currently assembles engines for the Avalon, Camry and Venza, all built at TMMK. The capacity increase will supply engines for TMMK’s Camry and Camry Hybrid, and RAV4 in Woodstock, Ontario.

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