Business North Carolina articles from December 2004

Business North Carolina archives from December 2004

Next stop, bartlett's.(UP FRONT)(commentary on cheap liquor and Calvinist guilt makes one famous)
December 1, 2004... David Bailey calls it my 10 minutes of fame--discounting the 15 that Andy Warhol predicted everyone would get. Then again, Bailey, former managing editor and present investor in BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA, works for an in-flight magazine, and the...

Employment.(TREND)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
December 1, 2004... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EMPLOYMENT Latest Previous Previous % change month month year from last year Total employed 3,974.8 3,979.3...

Retail sales (1).(TREND)(Illustration)
December 1, 2004... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] RETAIL SALES (1) Latest Previous Previous % change month month year from last year ($000s) Asheville ...

Trend.(meshed briefs)(Illustration)
December 1, 2004... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Latest Previous Previous % change month month year from...

EPA air line doesn't fly, scholar contends.(ECONOMIC OUTLOOK)(Environmental Protection Agency, Joel Schwartz)(Interview)
December 1, 2004... Most of the state doesn't meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new ozone standard, and the American Lung Association flunked 27 of 34 North Carolina counties included in its 2003 State of the Air report. These evaluations are...

Eastern.(REGIONAL REPORT)(meshed briefs)
December 1, 2004... ROANOKE RAPIDS -- Depew, N.Y.-based PCB Piezotronics, which makes pressure, heat and other sensors for companies such as Ford, General Motors and General Electric, will open a 50,000-square-foot factory here by early 2005. It will employ 250 at...

Triangle.(REGIONAL REPORT)(meshed briefs, Brainerd Chemical)
December 1, 2004... RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- Herbicide and insecticide maker Bayer CropScience is starting a seed-treatment division at its headquarters here. The company will add jobs to the 375 it has here, but it hasn't said how many it will have when fully...

Triad.(REGIONAL REPORT)(meshed briefs)
December 1, 2004... WINSTON-SALEM -- Granite Falls-based Bank of Granite opened its first Triad bank branch here, where the company has had a mortgage office since 1997. It has 20 branches in Caldwell, Catawba, Burke, Forsyth, Mecklenburg, Watauga and Wilkes...

Charlotte.(REGIONAL REPORT)(meshed briefs, Tanager Financial Services)
December 1, 2004... HICKORY -- WestPoint Stevens, a West Point, Ga.-based textile maker, will close its factory here by year-end. It employs about 300 making bedding accessories. CONCORD -- Richmond, Va.-based cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, part of New...

Western.(REGIONAL REPORT)(meshed briefs)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... WEST JEFFERSON -- Black & Decker, the Towson, Md.-based toolmaker, will close its saw-blade plant here, costing 250 workers their jobs. The shutdown will occur in phases, starting in the first quarter of 2005. Black & Decker acquired the plant...

NASCAR's flight might save lives.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)(National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing)
December 1, 2004... Like many NASCAR veterans, Don Miller hates to see the sport abandon older tracks in smaller Southern towns for the bright lights of big cities across the country. "When we move too far from our beginnings, you're asking for trouble," says...

Quotas' death leads to no dearth of leaf.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)(tobacco bill)
December 1, 2004... The October day that President George W. Bush signed a bill to pay Tar Heel tobacco growers and allotment holders $3.9 billion to forgo guaranteed prices and quotas was a gloomy one for farmers--in Zimbabwe, Brazil and other competing nations....

Towing companies want off the hook.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
December 1, 2004... When a vehicle gets towed, you expect to hear complaints--just not from the people doing the towing. That's what is happening in Durham, where tow-truck operators say the city is sticking them with junk cars. Durham has a list of 25...

Duh.(TATTLE TALES)(The Daily Tar Heel management)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Duh: The Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper at UNC Chapel Hill, kept its promise not to identify participants when writing about a drug-rehab program for the homeless. But the editors didn't notice the names of the men, written prominently...

Duh Deux.(TATTLE TALES)
December 1, 2004... Duh Deux: Seems the apple doesn't fall far from the Davie Poplar. Carolina Athletic Director Dick Baddour responded to a request from the Durham Herald-Sun by giving the newspaper copies of letters sent to 12 athletes who tested positive for...

A profit crying: blue cross and blue shield of North Carolina.(TATTLE TALES)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... A profit crying: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina started waiving co-pays on generic-drug prescriptions through the end of the year, offering free flu shots and covering treatment of obesity. Such benevolence has raised suspicion...

Unhappy camper: Satellite mapping showed that the home of John Meadows, a Democrat who ran for county commissioner in Iredell.(TATTLE TALES)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Unhappy camper: Satellite mapping showed that the home of John Meadows, a Democrat who ran for county commissioner in Iredell, is actually in Rowan County. He retained his voter eligibility by moving into a camper on the Iredell portion of his...

Dammed if they do: the $120 million Randleman Reservoir, which is supposed to supply water to the Triad for the next 50 years.(TATTLE TALES)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Dammed if they do: The $120 million Randleman Reservoir, which is supposed to supply water to the Triad for the next 50 years, might have a somewhat shorter lifespan--it might be stillborn. Two years after completion, it's still dry while...

Aye do: some Cramerton town commissioners were concerned about possible conflicts of interest when Mayor Cathy Biles married Town Manager David Young.(TATTLE TALES)
December 1, 2004... Aye do: Some Cramerton town commissioners were concerned about possible conflicts of interest when Mayor Cathy Biles married Town Manager David Young. No problem, the town attorney opined: The town manager reports to the board, and the mayor...

The color purple.(TATTLE TALES)(Crayola Products Div., new box of crayons)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... The Color Purple: The Blue Ridge didn't amount to much, Greenville failed to place, Red Springs made nary a ripple, and Pink Hill pricked little interest. So here's Crayola's Tar Heel selection for its new 50-state box of crayons. ...

Data bits.(TATTLE TALES)(food-stamp payments)(Illustration)
December 1, 2004... Four of the five counties with the highest food-stamp payments per capita in 2002 are in the northeast. Halifax $189.56 Northampton 167.08 Washington 163.80 Robeson 161.08 Bertie 152.62 Three of the five...

Number of people worldwide with financial assets (excluding residential real estate) of more than $1 million: 7.7 million.(FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Number of people worldwide with financial assets (excluding residential real estate) of more than $1 million: 7.7 million. With assets of more than $30 million: 70,000. Of Americans with assets of more than $1 million: 2.27 million. ...

Percentage by which the number of computer-science and computer-engineering majors in Canada and the United States dropped in 2003.(FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Percentage by which the number of computer-science and computer-engineering majors in Canada and the United States dropped in 2003: 23. Of computer-science and -engineering doctorate recipients in the United States and Canada who were...

Percentage of privately held companies that have been sued by a current or former employee.(FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Percentage of privately held companies that have been sued by a current or former employee: 26. Of executives who say it is likely that their company will face a claim in 2004: 44. Who estimated it would cost more than $100,000 to settle an...

Percentage of top executives who say that not contributing to their company's political action committee could harm their career.(FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Percentage of top executives who say that not contributing to their company's political action committee could harm their career: 24. Who say they were unsure whether not contributing could harm their career: 16. --Compiled by John...

Percentage of regular business travelers who say they reply to their e-mail within one hour when working at the office.(FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING)
December 1, 2004... Percentage of regular business travelers who say they reply to their e-mail within one hour when working at the office: 31. Who respond within the same time when traveling: 7. Who don't respond to their e-mail for at least 48 hours when...

N.C. mutual CEO puts a premium on profit.(PEOPLE)
December 1, 2004... When James H. Speed Jr. was a student at N.C. Central University in Durham in the early 1970s, he would go downtown to North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co. headquarters, where his sister worked. Once inside, he would hit her up for a small...

He puts the squeeze on getting plastered.(PEOPLE)(Roy Archambault )
December 1, 2004... For every five surgeries Roy Archambault performed as a podiatrist, one person eventually would get a cast or bandage wet. He would have to redo the cast or put on a new bandage. "It just seemed like I was being paged a lot. And it almost...

Druggist didn't come home from hospital.(PEOPLE)(Column)
December 1, 2004... Tim Rice and his wife planned to stay in Greensboro only three years. He had taken a job in 1978 as a pharmacist at Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, and they wanted to return to Washington state, where they both grew up. He's still in...

Tar heel stock watch.(Stock markets)(Illustration)
December 1, 2004... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Top 10 large-cap stocks 3-month 1-year 52-week Company change (1) change range Cree 54.2% 94.4% $16.60-34.89 ...

Talk radio proves right makes might.(CAPITAL)
December 1, 2004... Michael Curtis, a Wake Forest University law professor, has spent untold hours researching the balance between free speech and fairness in the media. What he has found are forces that foster demagoguery more than democracy. There's plenty of...

Hockey lockout mires businesses in deep snit.(SPORTS SECTION, National Hockey League )
December 1, 2004... What if the National Hockey League lockout puts this season on ice and nobody notices? While few sports fans seem to care--except in Detroit, some slap-shot-happy sections of the Northeast and, of course, that nation to the north--there's at...

His job is on the line: Dustin Wilks makes a living doing what some consider loafing in one of America's fastest growing pro sports.(FEATURE)(Biography)
December 1, 2004... There are two schools of thought when it comes to professional bass fishing--those who can't stop thinking about it and those who don't think about it at all. If you are in the latter camp, consider this: There are more anglers in the United...

Selling the sizzle: our 2004 small business of the year has been making hot stuff a family affair for three-quarters of a century.(COVER STORY, achievements and awards)
December 1, 2004... Credit a razed barbecue stand with one of North Carolina's enduring contributions to Southern cuisine. Sixteen-year-old Thad Garner bought the Dixie Pig in Winston-Salem and its handwritten recipe for barbecue sauce in 1929, shortly after...

Where no bus stops: at age 88, the world's largest builder of school buses keeps learning lessons.(PICTURE THIS)(Thomas Built Buses Inc.)
December 1, 2004... They're still painting them yellow, though not much else is the same at the world's largest school-bus manufacturer. Founded in High Point in 1916 as a streetcar maker, Thomas Built Buses Inc. has been making buses since 1936. But it doesn't...

New angle: the triangle region plans to stay on top.(REGIONAL FOCUS: SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION, creation of research parks)
December 1, 2004... Nearly 50 years ago, leaders from business, academia and industry came together with a vision of creating a research park between Duke University in Durham, N.C. State University in Raleigh and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....

Bricks & mortar.
December 1, 2004... Soul in stone, 210-foot-tall Duke Chapel in Durham cost about $2.3 million when finished in 1935. Tycoon James B. Duke had it built in memory of his father at the university that bears their name. But as the radical priest Daniel Berrigan once...