Business North Carolina articles from March 2004

Business North Carolina archives from March 2004

Blue-collar blues.(Up Front)
March 1, 2004... He was not old, though you'd have thought so, the way he tilted to the side on which he carried his oxygen bottle. I stood at the counter of a tire store in Beckley, W.Va., waiting to get a flat fixed. Coal dust takes its toll, and over the...

Trend.(North Carolina economic indicators)(Illustration)
March 1, 2004... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] TREND Latest Previous ...

Industry can count on grid computing.(Economic Outlook)(Robert Cohen)(Interview)
March 1, 2004... The adoption of grid computing by North Carolina businesses could boost the state economy by $10.1 billion through 2010 and create 24,000 jobs, according to a study commissioned by the Raleigh-based Rural Internet Access Authority. Some...

Eastern.(Regional Report)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... PONZER -- Hyde County approved Rose Acre Farms' plan to build a $55 million egg farm that would house up to 4 million chickens and employ 125 workers. The Seymour, Ind.-based company has not set a timetable. The plan faces opposition from...

Centex Rooney Construction.(Regional Report)(Centex-Rooney Construction Company Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Despite concern that Greene County paid too much for the land and that its purchase was politically tainted, the state will proceed with a 1,000-bed prison in Greene County. Gov. Mike Easley says he approved the project because it will benefit...

Working capital.(Regional Report)
March 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: North Carolina's unemployment rate rose to 6.2% in November. Rates increased in 87 counties, decreased in seven and stayed the same in six. Vance had the highest rate at 13.6%. Watauga, at 2.1%, had the...

Triangle.(Regional Report)
March 1, 2004... PINEHURST -- Pat Corso resigned as president and CEO of Pinehurst Resort. Corso ("Last Resort," September) became president in 1987 and is credited with reviving the resort and its historic golf courses. It played host to the U.S. Open in 1999...

Progress Energy Corp.(Regional Report)(people)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... It's back to Plan A, almost, for William Cavanaugh (cover, November), who retires as Progress Energy Corp.'s chief executive officer March 1. He will be replaced by Bob McGehee, 60, the company's president and chief operating officer....

Vance County courts collected 46% more fines per capita than any other county in the region in 2002.(Regional Report)(Illustration)
March 1, 2004... Vance County courts collected 46% more fines per capita than any other county in the region in 2002. Fines Per capita Vance $1,243,284 $28.02 Moore 1,487,501 19.21 Warren ...

Triad.(Regional Report)
March 1, 2004... THOMASVILLE -- Bermuda-based Tyco International closed a plastics plant here and a warehouse in Greensboro. Tyco eliminated 80 jobs, leaving it with about 2,700 in the Triad. The plant made plastic liners for garbage bins and is one of six such...

The region's smallest community colleges are getting more state dollars per full-time student.(Regional Report)(statistics)(Illustration)
March 1, 2004... The region's smallest community colleges are getting more state dollars per full-time student. Allocations Per (millions) student * Montgomery $4.5 $5,441 ...

Oakwood Homes.(Regional Report)(Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s subsidiary is to buy mobile-home maker Oakwood Homes )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... A subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway wants to buy bankrupt mobile-home maker Oakwood Homes for $373 million. The deal would combine Greensboro-based Oakwood and Maryville, Tenn.-based Clayton Homes, which Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway...

Charlotte.(Regional Report)
March 1, 2004... CHARLOTTE -- First Colony bought the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce building from Wachovia for $12.2 million. The building includes a 220-space parking garage and is fully leased. Tenants include Wachovia operations, the Charlotte Chamber and...

The Charlotte region is home to six of the 15 North Carolina cities that put the heaviest burden on taxpayers.(Regional Report)(Illustration)
March 1, 2004... The Charlotte region is home to six of the 15 North Carolina cities that put the heaviest burden on taxpayers. Per capita City * tax revenue ** 1 Charlotte $2,017.9 2 Wilmington ...

Curtiss-Wright controls.(Regional Report)(Curtiss-Wright Controls is to buy Dy4 Systems for $110 million and bought Systran for $18 million and Novatronics for $13.5 million)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Curtiss-Wright Controls, a subsidiary of Roseland, N.J.-based Curtiss-Wright, went shopping recently. The Gastonia-based manufacturer of flight-control components and systems agreed to buy Kanata, Ontario-based Dy4 Systems for $110 million;...

Western.(Regional Report)(Peregrine Energy of Greenville)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... ARDEN -- The merger of Southeastern Industrial Group, based here, and Peregrine Energy of Greenville, S.C., is creating about 60 technical jobs in mechanical and heating engineering here, where the company will be based. Employment will be...

Buncombe County.(Regional Report)(industrial incentives )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2004... Buncombe County commissioners boosted industrial incentives for manufacturers that want to locate or expand in the county. They will be eligible for a grant of 75% of their property taxes if they invest $250,000 or more and create at least...

BofA pays scalper price to put name on stadium.(Tar Heel Tattler)(Bank of America Corp.)
March 1, 2004... They lost in the Super Bowl, but there's little question the Carolina Panthers won big with a new naming-rights deal for their stadium in Charlotte. Beginning with the 2004 National Football League season, Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp....

Suit: state stumbles backing up tax hike.(Tar Heel Tattler)
March 1, 2004... Never look back. Not if you're the taxman, according to Raleigh lawyer Gene Boyce. The state taxed its wealthiest residents' 2001 incomes at a rate that wasn't adopted until September of that year. Boyce says that's unconstitutionally...

Financial Content/business North Carolina index.(Tar Heel Tattler)
March 1, 2004... All three indexes continued their year-end rallies through the first month of this year. Life-science stocks led the way for North Carolina large caps and small caps, while some bank shares struggled. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] * Pay per view:...

Figuratively speaking.(Tattle Tales)
March 1, 2004... * Percentage of corporate recruiters who say that communication and interpersonal skills are the most valuable attributes in an employee: 90. Strategic thinking: 65. Work experience: 32. * Rank of insurance costs as the top problem facing...

Graduation rate sees dropouts as no-count.(Tar Heel Tattler)
March 1, 2004... North Carolina public schools have been a fixture on national honor rolls for 10 years. Test scores have improved, with educators crediting a school accountability program that became a model for the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. A...

FDA hesitation fails to Inspire stock price.(Money Matters)(Illustration)
March 1, 2004... When it files statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. includes this disclaimer: "Our common stock price has been highly volatile, and your investment in our stock may decline in value." No...

Helms looks at himself through history's eyes.(Capital)
March 1, 2004... Jesse Helms still has fire in his belly, but the flames are flickering. Frail of foot, his mind mellowing, North Carolina's conservative icon seems at peace with himself and his critics. After 82 years of life, half of them as the vitriolic...

Barging in: how heavy metal floats up inland waterways to feed the massive maw of Nucor's steel mill.(Feature)
March 1, 2004... The 14,000-ton Portsmouth pulls into the Port of Morehead City, the barge's belly brimming with gnarled chunks of castaway steel--the spent casings of a rapid-fire industrialized society--hauled from New Jersey by New Canaan, Conn.-based Moran...

Sizing things up: despite the recent wave of hospital consolidation, bigger doesn't always mean better in quality of care.(Feature)
March 1, 2004... Under the lights over the operating table, the broken femur glistens as white as fine china. The surgeon bends closer and, as if winding a clock, screws a threaded rod through the neck of the thighbone and deep into the ball of the hip joint of...

Reservations: gambling has changed life for the Cherokee. Some say they've lost more than they've won.(Cover Story)
March 1, 2004... In the gray mountains' shadow, dusk comes early. Long ago, they called this remote spot Ka'lanun'yi--Raven Place--and the querulous calls of the birds can still be heard over the Raven Fork River's tumbling waters. Otherwise, the damp forest is...

Leave of essence: Spectrum Properties tries to hang on to people by letting them go for a month every five years.(Feature)
March 1, 2004... After John Tronco got married in the summer of 2001 in Augusta, Ga., he and his wife spent 18 days in Italy, hopping from the Isle of Capri to Rome, then to Florence and finally to a small beach resort on the Riviera. Returning to the United...

Greenville paving the way for a healthy east.(Regional Focus: SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION)(Advertisement)
March 1, 2004... Founded in the mid-1700s on the banks of the Tar River, Greenville has grown from a small agricultural community to the commercial, cultural, educational and medical hub of Eastern North Carolina. The city's population increased by more than...

He fit the bill when the job cropped up.(People)(Britt Cobb, interim agricultural commissioner)
March 1, 2004... At 10:30 a.m. June 6, the day Meg Scott Phipps resigned as North Carolina's agriculture commissioner, Britt Cobb was focused on his job marketing Tar Heel commodities around the globe. But his routine--and his career--changed forever when the...

Abbot deals when the spirit moves him.(People)(Belmont Abbey )
March 1, 2004... At Belmont Abbey--North Carolina's only Catholic monastery--21 Benedictine monks live, eat and pray together daily. Overseeing their spiritual welfare is an abbot who became a monk because he yearned for a life of prayer and community instead...

This guy often finds his business in tents.(People)
March 1, 2004... When Will Gay bought Diamond Brand Canvas Products Co. in 2000, it was on the condition that former owner Arnold Kemp would stay with the third-generation family business four years. "He was going to teach me all he knew from 50-plus years in...

Most of the time, his head is in the clouds.(People)(Steve Coan)(Brief Article)(Biography)
March 1, 2004... In his early 20s, Steve Coan paddled the Amazon River solo from Peru through Brazil in a dugout canoe. A few years later, while circumnavigating the earth in a 47-foot sailboat, he met his wife on a stop in St. Croix. [ILLUSTRATION...

Bricks & Mortar.
March 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Completed in 1991, Raleigh's Two Hannover Square is a 29-story tour de force of design known for its bold lighting and architecture. A pretty face with a past--its developers took shelter in bankruptcy in...