Since 2003, the Monaghan family has been using a children’s book they created to raise money for the fight against sarcoma—a deadly form of cancer that took the life of the life of Brian J. Monaghan, age 34, in 2002. He and his father, John Monaghan, were co-owners of International Holographic Paper, and the younger Monaghan was the inventor of the technique of combining 2-D custom holograms with registered lithography. This process enlivens the 32 pages of The Adventures of Snooky Under the Sea, a tale of a castaway cat co-authored by Brian’s sisters, Karen Monaghan-Arnone and Maureen Monaghan-Faber. Another Monaghan family business, Brian J. Publishing, distributes the book and donates a portion of the proceeds to sarcoma research and to a scholarship in Brian’s name. Last week, the book made news in a curious way when it was reported that another “Snooki,” Nicole Polizzi of the reality TV series Jersey Shore, had been turned down by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) when she tried to register her moniker as a trademark for printed matter and books. Noting the similarity of “Snooky” in the trademarked title of the Monaghan family’s book, the USPTO rejected Polizzi’s application because of the confusion it might cause. However, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Monaghan sisters are willing to discuss a deal with Polizzi if it will help the book and the good work that it supports. BRD Printing Inc. of Lansing, MI, is completing a business expansion that includes the addition of 4,000 square feet of plant space and the installation of a new six-color, 40" press, reports the Lansing State Journal. According to the story, the 33-year old company has defied the recession by continuing to record year-over-year growth. The company now has $5 million in annual sales, and the story says that BRD Printing has been able to undertake the $800,000 expansion without the help of local tax incentives it relied on for growth in the past. "Mostly we retain our customers over the years because I have a heck of a staff and a lot of them have been here for years and years," the owner, Don Hough, is quoted as saying. "If you were born or died, got married or divorced, owned land or real estate, went to court or voted in North Carolina during much of the last century, Owen G. Dunn Company is part of your life." So begins a profile in the New Bern Sun Journal of the 108-year-old family business, which today specializes in election-related printing, campaign supplies, and services for voting machines. For much of its long history, the company was linked to the production of public documents such as deeds, marriage licenses, real estate records, and certificates of birth and death. Under succeeding generations of family management, it also moved into general printing and newspaper publishing. But its core of the company's business has always been the printing of ballots for state elections, and the story credits it with providing the ballots that recorded every vote in North Carolina for 50 years. Today, Owen G. Dunn prints the ballots for 85 of the state’s 100 counties and for customers in 30 other states as well. It also sells and services all of North Carolina's electronic voting machines. The Chattanooga Times Free Press has tipped its editorial hat to Adams Lithographing Company for its commitment to green manufacturing. The story cites the company’s use of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified papers and its paper and plate recycling programs. “Not only are the company’s efforts to further environmental sustainability helpful for its goals but by offering paper products from certified forests with strict international standards, the company also helps customers in their goals to be green,” the writer, Brittany Cofer. comments. Established in Pine Bluff, AK, in 1886, the company was relocated to Chattanooga by its founder, Walter H. Adams, in 1928. It became the city’s first offset lithographer, and today, under the management of Jim Hogue and his sons Wyatt, Jason, and Bryan, Adams Lithographing offers a broad range of commercial and publication printing services. In Alvin, TX, a job that one printer couldn’t handle turned into a long-term windfall for a printer who could. This occurred, reports the Alvin Sun-Advertiser, when Extreme Makeover Home Edition, a popular TV series, sought a local printing company for a segment to be produced in nearby Houston. The first printer contacted referred the job to Green Ink Printing, whose proprietor, Gordon Green, then proceeded with an assignment that included the delivery of 3,500 badges, parking permits, and construction badges on a need-it-yesterday turnaround. So labor-intensive was the job that Green had to close the plant to all but walk-in business during the three days when the badges, etc., were being produced. Extreme Makeover Home Edition rewarded Green’s diligence by choosing his company to print all of its badges for the eighth season of the show. According to the story, Green had just returned from a missionary trip to Nicaragua when he got the call from the TV people. “I believe it was just meant to be,” he is quoted as saying. SHORT TAKES: National Communications Group (NCG), New York, NY, is included in a report by Bloomberg about companies that have taken hospitality suites at the New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. NCG, a full-service graphic design and production firm, is the official printing and graphic partner of the New York Jets, which shares the $1.6 billion sports and event complex with the New York Giants...the Richmond Times Dispatch reports that Trinity Packaging Corp. will expand its plant in Rocky Mount, VA, making a multimillion-dollar investment that will save 75 existing jobs and create 25 new jobs.