New York-based Chase has kicked off its Chase Community Giving Summer 2010 program on Facebook. The program will award more than $5 million to be shared among 200 charities with grants ranging from $20,000 to $250,000. Participants can begin voting for their favorite charities June 15. The first Chase Community Giving program earlier this year resulted in more than 2 million Facebook users becoming fans of the program. They helped decide which of the more than 500,000 charities should receive a share of $5 million. More than 100 winners from 31 states were selected. This time around, the …

One in five Americans use digital media – including blogs and social networking sites and platforms – to interact with neighbors and learn about local issues, according to "Neighbors Online"(http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Neighbors-Online.aspx"), a new study from the Pew Internet Project. The study indicates that social media is playing an important role in creating real community interactions among American who know few of their neighbors personally. It also shows that one in five adults have signed up to receive email or text message alerts about local issues, with weather updates and school alerts showing particular relevance.

While sales have been strengthening at Nordstrom, executives from the Seattle-based retailer told a group of investors that one of the best lessons it learned in the recession was a savvier balance between its full-line Nordstrom stores and the Rack, its fast-growing off-price division. The company says it plans to keep opening between 10 and 15 Rack stores per year, but as growth picks up at Nordstrom, there is less inventory. "We've had Racks for 35 years, and it's a very profitable concept," Rob Campbell, head of investor relations, told those attending the 30th Piper Jaffray Consumer Conference. "It's …

Frito-Lay had a big 2009 in spite of -- or maybe because of -- the economy. This year, company will continue a strategy that moved mountains last year for the Lay's brand by focusing on the local nature of the raw ingredients and the fact that products like Lay's Classic are just potatoes, oil and salt. The company is also moving 60% of its portfolio to all-natural this year. The efforts extending a campaign that won the company two silver Effie this year for its "Happiness is Simple" campaign starring real potato farmers Lay's uses for local sourcing. Gannon …

Move over Skype, Google has made video and voice chat easy with a one-click feature for either one-on-one or groups discussions in Gmail. And if you're chat buddy doesn't use Google chat or perhaps didn't install a plug-in. No worries. One click on an icon in the chat window will invite them to install it. Mobile anyone?

Analyst firm BIA/Kelsey has an app for that. The analyst firm released a free mobile application Wednesday giving quick access to local media news and analysis from the research and advisory firm’s four blogs. The new mobile app is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Developed by WillowTree Apps, the mobile app offers a stream to analysis on broadcasting, print, Yellow Pages, and local search.

A new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council recommends that the federal government establish a centralized food safety data and analysis center and develop a specialized food safety inspections workforce.  Ultimately, the research groups recommend that all food safety activities be centralized into a single, dedicated agency. The report pointed to the growing number of food recalls and confirmed that the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for overseeing the safety of 80% of the nation's food supply, is falling short in that mission due to "impediments to efficient use of its …

AdMob's founder Omar Hamoui has posted on the company blog a response to Apple’s updated Terms of Service for iPhone app developers. He wants to make it clear the change is not in the best interests of users or developers. The advertising terms both target companies with competitive mobile technologies, such as Google, as well as any company whose primary business is not serving mobile ads, Hamoui writes. "This change threatens to decrease, or even eliminate. revenue that helps to support tens of thousands of developers. The terms hurt both large and small developers by severely limiting their …

Sprint's estimate of initial sales for the HTC Evo 4G turned out to be too good to be true. The carrier has acknowledged that it overstated first-day sales of the Evo, the first 4G phone released in the U.S. Sprint said Monday that Friday sales were three times the number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold during their first three days combined. But Evo sales were actually in line with the number of Instinct and Pre phones sold in their first three days combined. "We inadvertently erred in the comparison," said Sprint in a statement. The overstatement …

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is taking entries now for the 10th annual Multicultural Excellence Awards for multicultural advertising and marketing campaigns.   The ANA says winners will be announced at the ANA's 12th Annual Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference, November 7-9 in Miami, Fla. For a campaign to be eligible, it must have appeared between June 2009 and June 2010, per the association.   The ANA has added a new category this time for exceptional work in print advertising. Other categories are:   Multicultural/Diversity: · African American · Asian · General Market · Hispanic · LGBT Media: · Digital Media · Radio · Print Significant Business …