This is a post by N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox:

After more than a decade at the same address in Durham's Homestead Market, Shiki Sushi (219 NC Hwy. 54, Durham; 919-484-4108; shikinc.com) has moved a few doors down into a larger space in the same shopping center.

Snazzier, too, from the fountain out front to the lipstick-red upholstery of the chairs in the sleek, contemporary Asian dining room and sushi bar.

Shiki's menu has grown, too, and now includes a pan-Asian selection that will be familiar to fans of TASU restaurants in Cary and Raleigh. Tham Nguyen, who owns all three restaurants, has merged the menus while opting to retain for this location a name that has become familiar to many fans in nearby RTP.

Nguyen says he has plans for the space he just vacated, too. He's working on an Asian hot pot and lounge concept which he expects to open in a few months. I'll keep you posted.

Send restaurant news to Greg at ggcox@bellsouth.net. Be sure to tune in to Greg's radio show at 11 a.m. Saturdays on WPTF.

Spoonflower, a local custom fabric printing startup with customers worldwide, is doubling the size of its location in Research Triangle Park and adding more jobs every month.

Spoonflower's new space will more than double its current size of about 8,000 square feet, and it will expand into the new space by December. When the company moved in two years ago, co-founder Stephen Fraser said, one of the advantages to its new location was that space was available in the same building to expand.

The company currently employs about 35 full-time staffers, as well as a few part-time employees, a number Fraser said will grow each month at least to the end of the year. The company is currently hiring for four open positions and adding printers and capacity to print fabric on a weekly basis.

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway for a free oil change at one of Atlantic Tire & Service's three locations in the Triangle.

I picked two winners at random and they are:

I've got coupons for free oil changes to give away here on the blog. Any takers?

I'll pick two winners and each will receive a coupon for a free oil and filter change at Atlantic Tire & Service.

The company has three locations in the Triangle:

• 1380 NW Maynard Road in Cary
• 5412 S. Miami Blvd. in Durham
• 8681 Marvino Lane in Raleigh

Leave me a comment at the bottom of this post by noon Thursday, July 26, and consider yourself entered to win.

Reuters  reported last week that Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse is planning another round of heavy layoffs in Europe as part of its previously announced plan to cut 3,500 jobs from its worldwide workforce of around 50,000. Sources told Reuters the new cuts would include senior management positions in the bank's investment banking division.

Credit Suisse spokeswoman Marcy Frank declined to comment Monday whether the worldwide cuts will affect the bank’s workers at its Research Triangle Park location.

At the end of 2010, Credit Suisse employed 1,100 workers and 200 contractors at its Morrisville tech support facility, which has expanded several times in the years since it opened in 2004.

In a rare move in June, the Swiss central bank warned Credit Suisse and rival UBS that both investment banks need to build up more capital to prepare for the possibility of the European debt crisis getting worse.

Source: Reuters

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/creditsuisse-jobs-idINL6E8HPCCB20120625

BASF, the German chemical giant, will invest $33 million expanding its Research Triangle Park facilities.

Last month the company announced that it is moving the headquarters of its plant science division from Germany to RTP.

The company already employs about 780 people in RTP, where it occupies 400,000 square feet.

The plant science division, which employs about 200 people, is working to create genetically modified crops that will produce larger harvests or plants that will be better able to withstand drought, floods and rising ocean levels.

The expansion announced Wednesday includes adding nearly 80,000 square feet of offices, laboratory and a climate-controlled greenhouse space. The project, which is the first of several investments planned at the RTP site, is expected to break ground next month.

BASF's transfer of its plant science headquarters to RTP is expected to add as many 123 positions.

Bloomberg News is reporting that Virginia “Ginni” Rometty's salary almost doubled to $1.5 million after she was promoted to CEO of IBM, the world's largest computer-services provider, at the start of this year.

Rometty - who was formerly IBM's chief marketing executive making $800,000 a year - is the first female CEO in the company’s 100-year history.

Her cash-incentive target for the year is $3.5 million, compared with the $1.47 million she received for 2011.

New York-based IBM employs about 10,000 people at its campus in Research Triangle Park.

Techies in search of a job need look no further than Texas.

Tech salaries in that city jumped a whopping 12.7 percent last year for an average annual salary of $89,419, according to the tech jobs website Dice Holdings.
That compares to a 2.6 percent jump in Raleigh where the average annual wage was $79,830 for techies last year.

If you can read it, this is how North Carolina will collect money from paying customers on its toll roads, starting today.  There are no quarters and no toll booths.

This was the first morning of toll collections on Triangle Expressway (see Monday's story with reader comments). I drove up and down TriEx to check out the (light) traffic. [1/4/11 update: see today's story about TriEx traffic, with reader comments.]  If you took TriEx to work today, I'd like to hear from you by email or phone (919-829-4527), including your workday contact info. ... [MORE]

View Triangle Expressway in a larger map

Toll collection will begin Tuesday morning on the first leg of the Triangle Expressway, which extends N.C. 147 through Research Triangle Park from I-40 to the 540 Outer Loop. [1/2/11 update: see today's story with reader comments.]

The road opened for toll-free traffic earlier this month, so RTP commuters and other drivers could try it out.

The cost for this 3.7-mile section of TriEx will be 50 cents per trip for folks with N.C. Quick Pass transponders, 77 cents for the rest of us.

So how do you like it?  Do you like it enough to pay a toll?  Will it make your daily drive easier?  If you drive TriEx Tuesday, please share your thoughts -- and your name and workday phone number -- by email or by phone (919-829-4527).