Inc. magazine recently ranked Adfero Group on its fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. This is the third consecutive year that Adfero Group has been recognized, and we are honored to continue the tradition.

“The leaders of the companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 have figured out how to grow their businesses during the longest recession since the Great Depression,” said Inc. president Bob LaPointe. “The 2010 Inc. 5000 showcases a particularly hardy group of entrepreneurs.”

Our growth could not have been achieved without the tireless efforts of our employees. We pride ourselves on developing extraordinary people to produce extraordinary results for our clients, and consider this to be a true testament to our commitment to that mission.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found here.

About the Inc. 5000
The Inc. 5,000 is comprised of the top 5,000 fastest growing companies in America. The list expands upon Inc.’s well-known 500 to provide a most comprehensive look of the entrepreneurship driving the U.S. economy.

Vestiges of Clinton, Gore Influence to be Tested in Home States

By John McArdle, CQ-Roll Call

In Arkansas, a Republican flip will have to come from the top down.

The Natural State GOP hasn’t had the success making inroads at the state or federal level as the party has in Tennessee. Republicans are outnumbered by about a three-to-one margin in both the state House and state Senate while Rep. John Boozman is the sole Republican in the Congressional delegation.

But the retirements of Democratic Reps. Marion Berry and Vic Snyder in the 1st and 2nd districts have presented two ripe possibilities in conservative territory and Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln appears to be one of the most endangered Senators of the cycle.

Republicans believe that if there was ever a time to win over a conservative state like Arkansas, which Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) carried with 59 percent of the vote in 2008, it’s 2010.

“In Arkansas you’ve got basically a one party state and it’s comprised of conservative Democrats and more conservative Democrats so the social issues don’t play like they might in other states,” said GOP consultant Chris Battle, who has worked extensively in Arkansas. But, he argued, Arkansas voters are watching “a liberal agenda coming out of Washington that has not been seen in a generation” and Democratic Members are having a hard time separating themselves from it.

Republicans point to the national party’s increasingly liberal brand as a main reason why Snyder and Berry decided to head for the door and why Lincoln has found herself behind in polls for almost the entire cycle.

The Democratic brand in Arkansas “is no longer defined by the Clintons. There is a competing more polarizing force,” said national GOP political consultant Brad Todd, who is based in Tennessee. “Average voters have to confront the fact that being a Democratic means something different than what it meant in their youth.”

Still it would be foolish to count out the role Clinton can, and likely will, play in his home state this fall. He’s already proven that he can still be a political force in high profile races like Pennsylvania’s 12th district special election this spring and in Lincoln’s hotly-contested primary.

“I think he still has influence but I don’t think even Clinton has the kind of juice it would take to overcome the hostility Arkansans have toward the Obama agenda,” Battle said.

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International Cargo Screening a Tough Mandate for TSA

By Rob Margetta, CQ Staff

At the beginning of August, when the Transportation Security Administration’s deadline to screen all cargo shipped on passenger aircraft came due, the agency said it hit its goal for domestic flights but would need a few more years for international aviation.

But the gap between domestic and international cargo screening is so wide, some experts wonder if it will ever be possible to bridge.

“It’s about as wide as the Grand Canyon,” said Jeffrey Sural, a former deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, now at the law firm Alston and Bird.

The problem is neither logistical nor technological, although there are certainly challenges in those areas. Rather, it’s diplomatic.

The explosives-screening mandate, established by the law that implemented recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission (110-53), takes TSA out of its comfort zone — establishing U.S. transportation security procedures — and puts it in the position of negotiating with every nation that sends cargo to America on passenger planes. Although the agency has scored significant agreements with major shipping partners, Sural said that there is a chance that some countries’ vision for screening will never line up with TSA’s.

“The world looks at security a little bit differently, especially when you’re talking about an arbitrary mandate of 100 percent,” he said.

The foreign-relations issue has increasingly caused headaches for the Department of Homeland Security. Earlier this year, after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was charged with trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam as it approached Detroit, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano embarked on a foreign tour in an intensive effort to develop international passenger-screening agreements.

Customs and Border Protection, meanwhile, is struggling with another requirement of the 9/11 commission law: the mandate to perform radiation scanning on all U.S.-bound cargo before it leaves foreign ports. CBP has described the goal as impractical and possibly unfeasible due to deficiencies in radiation scanners and difficulties negotiations with many foreign countries.

TSA has maintained a more optimistic view of its explosives-screening mandate, however. So far, the agency calculates that 55 percent of total international air cargo is being screened, including all cargo identified as “high risk.”

“TSA believes industry can and will achieve the 100 percent screening mandate of the 9/11 act by 2013,” agency spokesman Greg Soule said last week.

TSA cites recent benchmarks, including information-sharing agreements with the European Union and Canada and a 2008 pact signed by those governments, the U.S. and Australia with the intention of ensuring equivalent levels of air-cargo security. Officials are under no delusion that further progress will be easy, though.

“The scope of the 9/11 Act requirement for inbound passenger air cargo presents significant challenges in the international air-cargo environment and requires an approach that increases the security of the global supply chain without unduly impeding the flow of global commerce,” Soule said.

Some observers believe that trying to reach the 100 percent goal too quickly will make those consequences impossible to avoid.

“There is no way TSA can enforce that mandate,” said Chris Battle, the former director of public affairs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who now manages homeland security issues for the Adfero Group. “It will require cooperation between governments, not unilateral regulations from the U.S. Congress. Working out international agreements will take some time. Unless, of course, Congress intends to shut down commerce and international supply chains.”

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Immigration has risen again to the top of the list of issues eliciting citizen engagement with Congress in July. The issue has dominated throughout the past three months, ranking number one in May and coming in third for June.

Data from the Congressional Conversation Index (CCI) shows that concern over immigration has risen by roughly 53% in the past month, presumably due to continuing debate over Arizona’s controversial immigration law (SB107). Representatives received an average of 145 recorded emails, letters or calls regarding the issue throughout the month of July.

The CCI is a monthly compilation, put together by DC-based firms Adfero Group and Fireside 21, of the top issues Congress hears about from their constituents. Last month, energy and the environment topped the charts due to the after-effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Numbers have decreased dramatically in recent weeks, as BP officials appear to have contained the spill. In July, the top issues in the CCI were (1) Immigration (2) Health Care (3) Abortion + Womens Issues (4) Tax (5) Energy (6) Financial Services (7) Labor (8) Animals (9) General Government Issues (10) Foreign Affairs. Full CCI data is available below.