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In Cleveland, the $600 million Horseshoe Casino will open in a renovated downtown building in 2012 and provides 2,000 construction jobs now. There will be 1,600 more jobs in the casino, including 500 dealers. At least 90 percent of those hired are supposed to be Cleveland-area residents. The casino's general manager, who is African American, is Marcus G. Glover, the former assistant general manager and vice president of operations at Harrah's St. Louis.

Major Architecture Firms Merged in Dallas

The firm of Moody Nolan/VAI LLC was incorporated during the summer. The move joined two of the nation's prominent architecture firms, after eight years of collaboration. Black-owned Moody Nolan, of Columbus, Ohio, specializes in architecture, design and civil engineering. It was founded in 1982 by Curtis J. Moody and Howard E. Nolan. Moody Nolan has worked in more than 40 states and focuses on education, sports-recreation, health care and public-service facilities.

VAI Architects, based in Dallas, is an award-winning, Hispanic-owned firm founded in 1985 by Guillermo Vidaud and his son William Vidaud. VAI has worked with governments, transportation and aviation authorities and religious organizations, among many clients.

Learn more from the National Organization of Minority Architects, and about another prominent architect.

Meet Two Companies Selected for Comcast's Minority Startup Program

The venture capital unit of Philadelphia's cable giant Comcast, the Minority Enterprise Accelerator Program, which is part of DreamIt Ventures, chose five companies in a national search. Among them are black-owned companies Metalayer and ThaTrunk, Inc. MetaLayer, says its co-founder, serial entrepreneur and software developer, Jonathan Gosler, was created to change how images and text are analyzed and to make that process more efficient. ThaTrunk, Inc., is a website that CEO Hassan Johnson says will unite mobile commerce and geocast technology to help "creative extroverts resonate with their fans and the people around them."

Tennessee Pharmacy School Hires a Dynamic Leader

Marie Chisholm-Burns was hired as the new leader of the 113-year-old University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy, which just opened a 183,000-square-foot facility. She assumes her post in spring 2012 and is currently head of the department of pharmacy practice at the University of Arizona, College of Pharmacy. She is the author of 240 publications, has received $8 million in external funding and is known for her ability to raise funding in the millions for her department. She received her bachelor's and pharmacy degrees from the University of Georgia and a master's of public health from Emory University. Chisholm-Burns is the first African American to head the Tennessee College of Pharmacy.