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Bowles' words of wisdom
Erskine BowlesBowles embraces job with intensity, finesse
Erskine Bowles, UNC system presidencyResolutions for 2006
Erskin Bowles, UNC sytem admissionsComing up in 2006
Erskine Bowles, UNC system, tuitionTriad schools hope Bowles will raise their profile
Erskine Bowles, UNC system
What's
going on
James Zuiches
Swine
of the times
Mike Williams, hog-waste research
Charlotte
to lead state's growth
Michael Walden, Kannapolis Biotechnology Centee
Week
ahead
Michael Walden
Getting
out of a rut
Barbara Risman
Setting
the Agenda
Emerging Issues Forum
Soybean,
corn and small grain growers scheduled to meet in New Bern
Randy Wells,
CALS - Crop Science Department
Win or
lose, fans enjoy the Queen City
Meineke Car Care Bowl
Residents
taking tax increase in stride
N.C. State University Cooperative Extension program, alternative fuels
Pointers
help you keep poinsettia all year
Cooperative Extension
Idol
in progress
Student activities
In
NC, Scandal Arrives Before New State Lottery
Andrew Taylor
Homing
in on alcohol
David Haydysch (student) and president of the Chi Alpha
Omega Christian fraternity
Soybean, corn and small grain growers scheduled to meet in New Bern
Jan. 1, 2006
The Kinston Free Press
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
RALEIGH - The 17th Annual Joint Conference of North Carolina Soybean, Corn and Small Grain Growers Associations will be held Jan. 19-20 in New Bern.The meeting is open to farmers, university and government employees, industry representatives and other interested parties.
Registration begins at 8 a.m. Jan. 19 at the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center. Topics to be covered include an update on the federal Farm Bill, renewable energy, transferring the family farm and a market outlook for corn, wheat and soybeans.
Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler will provide an update on the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The N.C. Small Grain Growers Association, Corn Growers Association of N.C. and N.C. Soybean Producers Association also will host their annual meetings.
The annual banquet and special awards program will cap the day at 6 p.m.
Sessions on Jan. 20 will include updates on production research and soybean rust, information on using GPS technology in farming and a general session lead by Randy Wells of the Crop Science Department of North Carolina State University.
There is no cost for the conference, but there is a $20 fee for the banquet. Attendees are asked to pre-register.
Call (919) 877-9392 for a registration form or more information.
Dec. 31, 2005
News 14 Carolina
By Brittany Morehouse
© Copyright 2005
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Students from North Carolina State University started celebrating
early Saturday afternoon after the Wolfpack beat the University of South Florida
in the Meineke Car Care Bowl with a score of 14-0.
Despite the loss, the match-up was a huge deal for South Florida fans, whose team is a Division 1 rookie.
“Very big deal, first bowl game – huge deal,” said Dale Simpson, a USF alumnus. “Trying to get a good fan base going down home.”
USF fans traveled a long way to attend the game.
Most USF fans drove eight or nine hours to get to Charlotte. About 5,000 students
made the New Year’s trip. For some, it was a bonding experience.
“Road trip was a good time,” said USF student Eric Grecco. “We pretty much talked about ‘Tommy Boy.’ I’ve seen it a hundred times, so we quoted move lines basically sitting in the back of a Jetta.”
Their glorious green sweatshirts, however, were lost in a sea of red. It was home state game for N.C. State fans.
One alumnus said he’s been to almost every game, both home and away.
Uptown was covered in red as N.C. State fans flocked to the Bank of America Stadium.
“I was there from the beginning,” said John McClendon. “I went to the very first football game at Carter-Finley stadium as a matter of fact, many years ago. Unfortunately, we lost to South Carolina, but we had a great beginning at Carter-Finley Stadium.”
McClendon said the university’s goal is to build a strong football tradition, and he can tell by his grandson’s enthusiasm its efforts are working.
But win or lose, fans of both teams said they would be celebrating no matter what with a Queen City-style New Year’s.
“I love the Carolinas, southern hospitality,” said one USF fan.
Although the majority of people who came to see the bowl game were from Raleigh rather than Florida, all the out-of-towners will surely get a good sample of how people in Charlotte toast the new year while they welcome in 2006.
Jan. 3, 2006
Shelby Star
By Alan Jenkins
© Copyright 2006
SHELBY — It has become America’s most watched and participated in contests. Thousands flock to audition and millions tune their televisions in to watch. And Shelby native Heather Ellison went to take her shot at music stardom.
American Idol, the popular television show that allows viewers to vote for who should win, will air its new season beginning Jan. 17. But auditions were held in September, and show hopefuls could audition in one of seven cities.
Ms. Ellison, a junior at N.C. State University, flew to Denver with her mother. She almost backed out.
“I told her, ‘If you freeze when you get there, it’s in your hands,’” her mother, Teri, said. “‘But we’re here and you’re going.’”
They got to Denver around 12:30 p.m. When she joined the line for the auditions, there were about 15,000 people in front of her, Ms. Ellison said. Most had been at Denver’s Mile High Stadium, where auditions were held, since 2 a.m.
“They have cameras going on you all the time,” Ms. Ellison said.
Producers on the scene had everyone sing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
Those auditioning were herded to a series of tents. Singers auditioned four at a time in groups of 16.
“You can hear all these people audition, and you think, ‘Oh, my God, these people are good,’” Ms. Ellison said.
After taking mere seconds to listen to each group, the judges on hand would make their cuts. Each participant wore a wristband, and the judges would cut the wristband off each person as he or she auditioned.
In Ms. Ellison’s group, they asked four people to step up and sing again. They cut three of them. Ms. Ellison went on to the next round.
In the second round, producers asked her questions about herself, and she sang 15 seconds of any song of her choice. She chose “On the Side of Angels” by LeAnn Rimes.
“We just can’t decide about you,” Ms. Ellison remembered the producers saying to her.
They asked her to sing a second song, and she chose “Blue” by Patsy Cline.
As part of the experience, she met last year’s American Idol winner, Carrie Underwood. She also met Bo Bice, last year’s runner-up.
“I spent 30 minutes with Carrie,” Ms. Ellison said. “The way they portrayed her on TV was the way she is.”
Miss Underwood also called Ms. Ellison’s sister and father while backstage.
In the end, they cut Ms. Ellison, telling her to work on her lower ranges and come back to audition again next year.
She’s practicing just in case.
“I’d love to go back next year,” Ms. Ellison said.
Jan. 3, 2006
News & Observer
By Karen Guzman
© Copyright 2006
In the dim, whispery dining room of North Hills' trendy new restaurant, 115
Midtowne, Tim Fletcher found a new life. As general manager here, amid the
soft, tinkling holiday tunes and the gleaming wooden bar, he has become a
new man.
But he hasn't forgotten the old one.
"I still pick up the phone and say, 'Glenwood Grill' sometimes," he laughs. "For 15 years I was so identified with Glenwood Grill, if I called somebody, I didn't say this is Tim Fletcher. I'd say this is Tim from Glenwood Grill."
The problem was that comfy familiarity had a big downside: Fletcher was stuck. He was stagnating, living the routine of a challenge that had played itself out."It was scary. I really debated with myself a while," he says.
At 51, Fletcher was a managing partner at Glenwood Grill. He had built his life around the successful Raleigh eatery since 1990.
"There was no challenge left there for me," he says. "I just felt like if I didn't do something new, I was gonna bust."
Like so many people, Fletcher was in a rut, stuck in a role that was safe and comfortable but no longer emotionally rewarding. To get out he would have to make tough choices.
The beginning of a new year is a natural time to pause and reflect; it throws a spotlight on life's big questions. If you're stuck in a rut, and everyone is at some point, change is necessary to reclaim your vitality. But it doesn't come easy.
"The first step in getting out of a rut is realizing you're in one," says psychologist Larina Kase, president of Performance & Success Coaching LLC.
Do you feel validated and appreciated at work? Are your personal relationships healthy? How about those fitness goals?
Sometimes a rut is obvious. "You're spinning your wheels. You're not moving forward," Kase says.
At work, you may have hit a dead-end. The company's mission has changed to one that doesn't match yours, or you find yourself trapped in a poisonous, counterproductive corporate culture.
Some people, however, have trouble reading the signs.
"It's one of those things where you can't see the forest for the trees, because you're immersed in it," Kase says.
The best way to tell if you're in a rut is to imagine the life you want and measure it against the one you have. Then, if you're ready to break free, prepare for a bumpy ride.
Fletcher, for instance, feared falling flat on his face. He wanted to stay in the restaurant business. But new restaurants have a high failure rate, and he was leaving a safe -- though soul-numbing -- job for the unknown. On top of that he feared losing his identity as "Tim from Glenwood Grill."
Real growth, though, usually requires risk, Kase says.
"I took a big leap, and I am so glad I did," Fletcher says. Business at 115 Midtowne has exceeded his hopes. "I am absolutely recharged. I have tons more energy. I am happier than I have been in the last two to three years," he says. His fear of losing his old identity dissipated as a more rewarding one emerged.
Fear is the enemy
Indeed, with ruts, circumstances aren't the real enemy. Fear is.
"That's where most people get hung up, when they're afraid to change," says performance coach and author John Seeley. "Fear of the unknown is one of the biggest causes of being stuck."
One approach is to break a big goal -- a new job, losing 40 pounds -- down into small steps. Take one step every day.
"You start by moving outside your comfort zone," Seeley says. "Einstein said, 'To continue doing the same thing, expecting different results, is insanity.' If we want new results, we need to do different things."
Surrounding yourself with people who understand and value the new goal can help.
For poet Jaki Shelton Green, of Mebane, her husband was key.
A divorced mother of three, Green, 52, supported her family for 20 years working first at legal services, and then for a Chapel Hill non-profit. It was valuable work she enjoyed.
Still, she was a published poet and writing was her heart's true desire. She pushed it into the background. "The path I was on was a pretty mainstream safe one: a good job and security," she says.
By the time Green remarried in 2000, her children were grown and gone. She was at a new crossroads, pondering the future, when her new husband encouraged her to pursue her true passion. It wasn't easy.
"Even if something isn't good, it becomes who you are after a while," Green says. "This was the first time anyone had challenged me to give myself the permission to not have that safety net."
She turned to writing full time in August 2004.
"Getting out of any rut is a journey," she says. "I need to remove these other voices, these other scripts in my head that I have used to measure myself. Having someone who valued my art, someone who really said, 'Do it. Don't be afraid' helped."
Breaking free of ruts is crucial to life satisfaction, says Gail Blanke, motivational speaker and author of "Between Trapezes."
"We all get stuck at some point in our lives -- in a job, in a relationship, in an old view of our lives," Blanke says. "Lots of times we lose ourselves in the process of trying to be everybody's everything."
Escaping requires vision and courage. Blanke encourages clients to envision the life they truly want and deserve.
"Create a powerful vision for how wonderful the future can be," she says. "Say, 'I'm not going to work in a place where I feel diminished because I'm so much better than that.' "
Defining moments
Then her clients do an exercise. They create a list of what she calls "life's defining moments."
"Look at the moments when you found something in yourself you didn't know you had, and you pulled it out," Blanke says.
"It's the moment when you said no or yes or drew the line, or erased one. But it's always the moment after which you never looked at yourself the same way."
Kim Grant had a defining moment in 2003. After 10 years of frustration with a boyfriend who couldn't hold a job, Grant, of Raleigh, said enough.
"I don't like being alone," Grant says. "But then I started to feel alone even though we were together, because we had stopped connecting."
To move on, she jumped into life, getting involved in community organizations and taking dance lessons.
"What's amazing is after he was out of my life, people said I seemed to have so much energy and seemed so much happier," she says.
Like Grant, Sharon Webb heeded the rut warning signs.
"Part of life is knowing when to go," she says. When her longtime job at a Triangle advertising/marketing firm grew stale, she faced the inevitable.
"When there is not anywhere up you can go, it takes the wind out of your sails," she says. "I'm a risk taker. You have to take risks to get ahead."
She is now in sales for a fledgling company she believes in passionately.
Sometimes, it takes a crisis to get unstuck.
"Defining moments very frequently are not the times you won, but the times you came up short, the times when it was so hard," Blanke says.
Filling a hole
In the end, it's not what happens to you in life that dictates the future, but what you do about it.
Barbara Risman, for instance, enjoyed her life in Raleigh.
As a sociology professor at N.C. State University for 21 years, she became part of the community. She raised her daughter in a house and neighborhood she loved.
But when her daughter went off to college in Pennsylvania this fall, Risman felt a gaping hole in her life.
"I knew I had to do something to jolt myself to make the transition easier," she says. "My way of getting out of the rut was to find a new challenge."
Opportunity came calling. The University of Illinois in Chicago recruited Risman to head its growing sociology department.
She says the decision to leave was a no-brainer. She bought a chic downtown loft in Chicago and began mapping out a new life.
"The hardest part is leaving all the people behind that I love," she says. "Luckily, I believe in airplanes."
She also believes that ultimately she is responsible for her own life and choices, for the situations she accepts and those she refuses.
"It's much less scary to keep everything the way it is and not take any chances," she says. "Sometimes, people get in ruts and just complain. I didn't want to be one of those people."
Triad schools hope Bowles will raise their profile
Jan. 3, 2006
Triad Business Journal, MSNBC
By Matt Evans
© Copyright 2006
Leaders at the four Triad campuses in the University of North Carolina system will start the year with a new leader, and hope that he will prove to be an ally in their efforts to boost the local economy and upgrade research facilities.
Incoming President Erskine Bowles, a Greensboro native, investment banker, former presidential chief of staff and senate candidate, will succeed the retiring Molly Broad effective Jan. 2, with his formal inauguration scheduled at UNC-Greensboro on April 12.
Since his selection last October, Bowles has visited every campus in the UNC system, including UNCG, N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro, Winston-Salem State University and the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. The visits were made without much fanfare, but Bowles has said his goal for the tour was to learn about the major issues facing public higher education in the state.
A UNC spokeswoman said Bowles is declining all press interviews until he formally takes office, but reports from participants in his Triad visits indicate he got a clear message that area public universities want to raise their profiles in the business and technology communities.
For example, UNCG Chancellor Pat Sullivan said she told Bowles that her school is making a concerted effort to become a more research-oriented institution. The Greensboro campus is formally classified as a "Doctoral/research university-intensive" by the Carnegie Foundation, which applies such categories to indicate the concentration a given campus places on its research activities.
Sullivan said UNCG's goal is to become a "research-extensive" university by 2010. Under Carnegie's classification system, that would put the school on a research par with UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University, the only two UNC campuses that currently hold that designation. The Carnegie Foundation is currently revising its classification system, but Sullivan said that won't change the potential benefit of such an upgrade.
"It puts us in a whole different category in terms of faculty, federal grants, top personnel -- it's entering a different group of competitors," Sullivan said. "Hopefully the benefit as we do more research and have more engagement with the community is we'll play a more vital role in economic development."
Finding sources of money
N. Radhakrishnan, vice chancellor for research at N.C. A&T, said Bowles
could make a big difference in university- related economic development efforts
by pushing to make seed money available for spin-off companies. Radhakrishnan
said traditional startup funding from venture capitalists and angel investors
can be difficult and expensive to acquire, but Bowles' background in investment
banking and politics may give him the motivation and ability to find other
sources of money.
"We emphasized (to Bowles) that to spin off companies, we need seed money to be able to build from," Radhakrishnan said. "When we complete research we may end up with a patent, but before we can sell that patent we need to prove that... what we showed in the lab is valid to industry. ... And, in order to do that, we need seed money."
Finding money in the state budget to directly fund private company spin-off efforts would be a big mountain to move both politically and economically, but Radhakrishnan said Bowles appeared open to new ideas.
"He has a lot of experience in this field. He's been in the real world, the practical world, and he understands money flow and industry. I think he'll look favorably on (new ideas), but he didn't make any promises," Radhakrishnan said.
Radhakrishnan said he also pushed the idea of locating a nanotechnology center at the Greensboro Center for Innovative Development, modeled after the N.C. Biotechnology Center. Just as the Biotech Center promotes commercialization of biotech research across the state, Radhakrishnan said there is a great opportunity to capitalize on nanotechnology programs at A&T, Wake Forest University and Forsyth Technical Community College as well as existing nanotech companies in the Triad to establish a significant industry cluster.
The Greensboro Center for Innovative Development is a joint effort launched in 2003 by A&T and UNCG to establish a new research park in Greensboro, and both schools told Bowles that it is the signature effort under way demonstrating their determination to increase their commercial and technological profiles. The so-called "Millennial Campus" to be shared by the two universities will consist of two locations, a North Campus at the former site of the Central North Carolina School for the Deaf off US 29, and a South Campus on the A&T Farm bordered by I-40 and Lee Street.
The need for system support
John Merrill, executive director for the Greensboro Center for Innovative Development,
said he did not have the opportunity to meet with Bowles personally, but
he's hopeful that he will become an enthusiastic supporter as the GCID works
to renovate facilities and attract research activities and companies.
"We've been talking about going after money on the research side at the federal as well as the state level, and it will be important to have his support on those efforts," Merrill said. "If we're going after a significant agenda, you need to have the support of the system so it doesn't look like you're headed off on your own track."
Merrill said the GCID is ready to hire architects to work on plans for both campuses, and he expects to be able to name the selected firms shortly. The designers will work on a master plan for the South Campus and a facilities assessment at the North Campus, where there are already buildings with about 140,000 square feet of space in need of renovations.
Officials at Winston-Salem State University and the N.C. School of the Arts were not available to comment on their discussions with Bowles, but both schools have also talked about their efforts to increase community and corporate ties. For example, the schools are working together to create the Center for Design Innovation, with the goal of developing a cluster of design-intensive businesses in the Triad.
Bowles will also make the formal appointment of a chancellor at the School of the Arts. Former Chancellor Wade Hobgood resigned in July, and the school hopes to recommend a replacement to Bowles in time for a new chancellor to be in place by July.
With 16 schools across the state under his direction, the UNC campuses in the Triad know they won't be getting Bowles' undivided attention. But Sullivan, at UNCG, said the change in leadership is an opportunity to re-emphasize the role of higher education in the larger Triad community.
"He'll be looking at us with fresh eyes, hopefully with an understanding of the special role we have in this region and why that's important," Sullivan said. "I expect to find a very open mind about that."
Reach Matt Evans at (336) 370-2916 or mlevans@bizjournals.com.
Residents taking tax increase in strid
Jan. 3, 2006
New Bern Sun Journal
By Sue Book
© Copyright 2006
Many think prices will stabilize and attributed much of the increase to natural disasters
The North Carolina gasoline tax hike that added 2.8 cents a gallon to already rising gasoline prices New Year's Day was anticlimactic for most customers pumping gas in Craven County - if they noticed it at all.
Drivers here, like Terry Smith of New Bern, have seen gas prices over the past year rise from under $2 per gallon to more than $3, then drop again, and are mostly taking the tax increase in stride.
The $2.279 per gallon price of unleaded regular at the Glenburnie Road Exxon where Smith stopped Monday was at the high end of county prices, which are up about ten cents from last week. The low-end price in Craven was about $2.169 per gallon.
Many stations incorporated the tax hike into their pre-New Year's Eve price, and general increases have taken them even higher since December, when the cost in the area was just below $2 per gallon.
Clerks, like Schmanian Edwards at the Glenburnie Hess station, said customers continually grumble about gas prices but have said little about the tax.
"It's supposed to go to fix our roads," he said.
"Belltown Road is a state maintained road, so I hope my money will pay to fix it," said Kim Schoen, as she filled the tank of a Crystal Clean Buildings van, one of the Havelock company's 10-vehicle fleet.
"You don't notice it (the tax) much when you fill up one, but with all employees filling up vehicles, we'll see the difference at the end of the month," said Schoen.
Kevin Collins of New Bern fills the 30-gallon tank on the Chevy Silverado he uses for work almost three times a week.
"We need the money for road repairs, but I'd like to see them repeal it a little bit," he said.
Smith thinks prices will stabilize and attributed much of the increase to natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
"I don't think it's hurting too much, and people aren't polluting the world so much," Smith said of people reducing what she called luxury driving.
Looking for the silver lining, Smith hopes high prices will spur development of alternative fuels.
The N.C. State University Cooperative Extension program is gathering information on bio-fuel production as crop alternatives to tobacco production. A bio-fuel summit is scheduled for spring.
In the meantime, however, some struggle with any added cost.
Sydnie Sturgis said she lost her job at a Morehead City gas station because of drive-offs. "People can't afford it," she said.
Julia McGriff, of New Bern, uses her car for home health work.
"I feel it every time it goes up," she said. "I wish they'd bring it down a little."
Sue Book can be reached at 635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.
Jan. 2, 2006
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
MIXED-MEDIA WORKS: Fifty pieces of art are being displayed through March 26 at the Ackland Art Museum in the exhibition of "Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Lezley and Alison Saar." Influenced by their mixed-race ancestry -- African-American and European with a trace of Native American -- the three artists interpret family, identity, race and gender in their artwork.
Sculptures with everyday items incorporated, two-dimensional collages of varying materials, and three-dimensional assemblages -- objects made from a group of objects -- are on display. There are paintings, children's handprints, fabrics, jewelry, old photographs, embroidery, handmade paper and clocks.
The Ackland is on South Columbia Street near Franklin Street. Admission is free.LAW STUDENTS HELP: Fifteen students went to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans as part of the pro bono program to help clients recover Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance for destroyed property, protect the civil rights of those left homeless by Hurricane Katrina and seek remedies for those who have been wrongfully evicted from their homes.
A gift from the Donald and Elizabeth Cooke Foundation is covering travel expenses.
PROGRAM FUNDED: The 2006 U.S. Department of Defense Appropriations bill includes $3 million for the Citizen-Soldier Support Program to strengthen its outreach to the families and loved ones of the Army and Air National Guard and the reserve components of all of the armed services.
UNC-Chapel Hill heads the collaborative program that has conducted training for school psychologists and health-care professionals, activated numerous faith communities and partnered with parks and recreation departments, libraries and cooperative extension agencies to create services benefiting citizen soldiers and their families.
HEALTH LITERACY: Health care providers soon will have access to a new tool designed to assess patients' health literacy skills quickly and simply, thanks to medical school researchers at the University of Arizona and UNC-Chapel Hill. Researchers developed the "Newest Vital Sign," a six-question assessment that enables health workers to gauge individuals' ability to read, comprehend and act on health information in productive ways. It is the only rapid assessment tool developed in Spanish and English.
Reports issued by the Institute of Medicine, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the American Medical Association in 2004 indicate that as many as half of all adults in the United States have low health literacy.
N.C. STATE UNIVERSITY
NEW VICE CHANCELLOR: James Zuiches, a professor in the department of community and rural sociology and project leader for the National Coalition for Rural Entrepreneurship at Washington State University, has been named vice chancellor for extension, engagement and economic development at N.C. State University. The appointment is effective March 15.
In his new role, Zuiches (pronounced ZY-ches) will help lead and coordinate far-reaching extension, engagement and economic development programs at the university.
PEACE COLLEGE
INSTITUTE APPLICATIONS: The N.C. Center for Women in Public Service is accepting applications for its third summer institute for women who are considering seeking public or appointed office. The Center for Women in Public Service is a joint program of Peace College and the Women's Forum of North Carolina.
Applications are online at www. nccwps.org. The deadline is Jan. 31. For more information, call 508-2308.
CAMPBELL UNIVERSITY
LONGTIME DONOR DIES: Charlotte entrepreneur Jim Nisbet, who served on the university's Presidential Board of Advisers for more than 38 years, died Dec. 23. Nisbet led capital campaigns for new building projects. As a result of his philanthropy, the Nisbet Tennis Center was established, and the university got $700,000 to meet academic and facility needs.
Jan. 2, 2006
Winston-Salem Journal
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
All year long, we here at the Journal, much like our readers, deal with one issue, one problem, after another. Often, we deal with them in a hurry.
The turn of a new year offers an opportunity to take a longer view, to think about what we and our readers should be thinking, talking and writing about in 2006. Over the next few weeks, the editorial staff will be working to develop an agenda of sorts, setting forth what ought to be some of the issues for debate in what we like to think of as our community forum - the editorial pages. We also will be trying to come up with suggestions for action and solutions.
Today we begin that process with this look at some of the issues that we think should be high on the agenda for state government this year. We plan to expand the list soon with issues closer to home as well as other issues that affect the whole state.
We don't pretend to have all the answers, or even all the right questions. We'd like to invite readers to suggest ideas for the community agenda for Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, the greater Northwest North Carolina area and the state.
Send us an e-mail to letters@wsjournal.com with "agenda" in the subject line. Or drop us a note in the mail to "Editorial Page, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102.
Here's our first attempt to get the discussion started:
? Teacher retention: North Carolina public-school leaders are on a teacher-supply treadmill. No sooner do they stock their faculties for one year than they must begin the search for new teachers, either to replace those who quit or to fill slots created by smaller class sizes and the growing student population.
Gov. Mike Easley, the legislative leadership and the State Board of Education have tried a number of ideas to meet the teacher demand, including new standards for teachers recruited from other states.
Easley is also proposing to aim the state, once again, at the elusive goal of reaching the national average in teacher pay. Gov. Jim Hunt and the legislature tried this in the late 1990s, but fell short by a small margin.
That goal is more public-relations gimmick than good state policy. Teachers leave the profession for many reasons, not just pay. And there is no evidence that the national average teacher salary is the pay level that will significantly improve teacher retention.
Rather than shoot for a simplistic target of the national-average salary level, the state should tap into the volumes of research material available on teacher retention, looking at the many concerns that teachers have about their professions. They range from adequate lunch periods, to student discipline, to opportunities for professional improvement and, yes, to teacher pay.
??University tuition: The N.C. Constitution guarantees a university system that is as close to free as is "practicable."
No one knows what that term means legally, but the rash of tuition increases over recent years certainly raises the likelihood that someone will sue to force the courts to define it. The real danger with the state's rising tuitions is not a lawsuit. The danger is the impression young people may get that they cannot afford to attend college. North Carolina's college-going rate is above the national average, now, and must keep rising. An educated workforce is essential for prosperity.
The General Assembly must reverse its trend of forcing tuition and fee increases to pay for the university. And, it must rein in those officials in the University of North Carolina system who wish to send tuition higher. The university is not a private, Ivy League school. It is a university for the people of North Carolina - and that fact should be made very clear to those who would keep raising university costs for students.
??Tax structure: North Carolina was a national leader in tax reform during the 20th century. The depression-era system created by the legislatures of the 1930s served this state well and led to the transformation of a poor state into an economic engine.
Time and the world economy, however, have passed this system by. The state's tax structure is fashioned for a manufacturing economy where people spend almost all of their money on goods. Today's world is as much about information and services as it is about manufactured products. The state's three leading industries of the 20th century - tobacco, textiles and furniture - are all in decline. New industries, mostly related to high technology, medical care, information and tourism, have replaced them.
Some of the state's most prominent business and political leaders are encouraging a re-examination of the state's tax structure. Former Gov. Jim Hunt and former Wachovia CEO John Medlin are among them. The Emerging Issues Forum at N.C. State University next month will focus on the topic.
North Carolina needs a 21st-century tax structure that is fair to all. Some hope that the restructuring can lead to further tax cuts for business and the wealthy. That would be grand, but first the heavy tax burden that has been shifted onto lower- and middle-class consumers over the last 20 years must be reversed.
??Government reform: The scandal involving House Speaker Jim Black, his former associate Meredith Norris and the passage of the state lottery law have raised the public awareness of the sleazy way business is conducted in Raleigh. Too much money flows from corporate interests to lawmakers and executive-branch officials.
Lobbyists are wining, dining and entertaining - without adequate regulation - the people who make and enforce the state's laws. They are also deeply involved in electoral campaigns and campaign fundraising. The conflicts of interest are everywhere, yet they are not illegal.
North Carolina needs a total overhaul of its campaign-finance and lobbying laws. Legislators and policy-making executive-branch officials should not be allowed to take gifts from lobbyists. The lobbyists, in turn, should not be allowed to work as either campaign aides or consultants.
Elected officials and those who serve on government boards must be required to file full financial-disclosure statements. Failure to fully disclose financial interests should be punished severely.
It is time for North Carolina to require good, clean government.
??Good roads: North Carolina has some of the highest motor-fuel taxes in the country, and the highest in the Southeast. Yet, our roads are in bad shape, and the state's schedule for completing new roads is way behind.
Easley and the General Assembly need to refocus on transportation, dedicating themselves to repairing and maintaining what is in place, and then set an achievable list of priorities for the roads that are most needed.
This would be a much more attainable goal, of course, if the state were stricter with its bidding process, demanding true competition for road-building and maintenance projects. North Carolina taxpayers should also get excellent work for the premium dollars they pay on road projects. Too many road projects cost top dollar but include shoddy work.
And, to better protect the state's roads once they are built and resurfaced, the General Assembly should pursue remedies to the problem of overweight trucks that was detailed in a recent Department of Transportation study. Various elements of the trucking industry are getting special breaks on weight limits, no doubt tied to special friends in political circles, and those heavy trucks are destroying the roads.
Charlotte to lead state's growth
Jan. 1, 2006
Charlotte Business Journal
By John Downey
© Copyright 2006
Economists and business leaders see 2006 shaping up as a strong year for Charlotte, though the area's economy may be hard-pressed to reach the heights of 2005.
Mike Walden, an N.C. State University economist and author of the quarterly N.C. Economic Outlook, expects the Charlotte region to lead the state in growth in each of the categories he tracks -- employment, retail sales and wages.
Part of that comes from the advantage of being the biggest city in a state that Walden expects to outpace national growth trends in 2006.
But other factors bode well for the Queen City as the new year begins, he says.
"It's getting increased national recognition as a financing center and as the warehousing capital for the region -- and even for things like its sports franchises," Walden says. "It's being looked at like Atlanta without a lot of the negatives with growth and congestion -- or at least not so bad a (set of) negatives."
Charlotte is benefiting from a clear trend in the state, Ken Lewis, chief executive of Bank of America Corp., noted at the Charlotte Chamber's economic forecast luncheon last week.
"For the Carolinas, the economy has become a case of the haves and the have-nots," he says. "In North Carolina, the urban markets -- and this will be true for Charlotte -- keep doing better and better while the rural markets do worse and worse."
Graham Denton, BofA's Charlotte market president, sees continued strength in the service economy, particularly in financial institutions, as a powerful engine for growth in the Charlotte region.
"Manufacturing is still a base industry, and if we have a weakness, that may be where it will be in 2006," he says. "The strength of the economy overall is clear. I am very bullish on the region."
But 2006 may not prove as hot as 2005. Mark Vitner, Wachovia Corp. senior economist, sees the housing industry slowing here, as has already begun nationally.
"We're looking for the housing market to cool off in 2006, but we only see a 5% pullback in sales," he says. "But we don't see this as a bubble, and we think a burst is unlikely to happen."
Still, the slowdown, locally and nationally, will have an impact in Charlotte, Vitner says. The boom in mortgage activity and equity lending in the early part of the decade, prompted by low interest rates, had "a strong, positive influence on Charlotte," he says. "It fostered the strong growth in mortgage banking (in the region) and helped fuel the growth in investment banking as mortgages were packaged and sold to investors."
Retail development also promises to remain strong locally, Vitner says. But again, 2005 set a high standard, especially with the opening of Northlake Mall. Frank Warren, president of real estate analysis firm Warren & Associates, foresees big-box development on tracts surrounding Northlake.
"But the next big play in retail appears to be in the east, in Mint Hill and Stallings," he says. In that area, two groups are competing to develop the next regional shopping center.
"The department stores are likely to go to only one of them," Warren says. "By the end of 2006, we should have a lot better idea which."
Vitner also anticipates ongoing retail development, particularly as more legs of the Interstate 485 outerbelt are completed. But such retail expansion won't likely have as big an impact as Northlake has brought this year.
"You get a new mall in a community every five to 10 years," he says. "It will be a while."
Job creation may also be less robust in 2006 than it has been in the past year. Vitner says the region has gained about 30,000 jobs this year, one of the highest annual totals ever. In 2006, that figure will drop a notch to a still-strong 26,000, he predicts.
A few high-profile projects will bear watching in 2006, including the start of the biotech center California billionaire David Murdock plans to build in Kannapolis.
"David Murdock can get things done," says state Rep. Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, regarding the proposed North Carolina Research Campus.
Black, the N.C. House Speaker, played a role in bringing that center, as well as a Gaston County production plant for Murdock's Dole Food Co. Inc., to the region. "If he has a dream in the middle of night that he wants to start a biotech center in Kannapolis, he can make it happen," Black says of Murdock. "That project may mean a billion-dollar investment in North Carolina."
Vitner likens the Kannapolis center's potential to Research Triangle Park, which took off in the mid-1960s when IBM Corp. announced it would move a major operation there.
The initial economic impact from Murdock's Kannapolis venture will be felt primarily in the construction industry, as the research campus is built, Vitner says. But he says the region also will learn which companies will join giants such as Dole and Burlington-based bio-testing company Laboratory Corporation of America at the center.
"I happen to think it is a very well-conceived project ... (that) will pay off in a huge way for the region," Vitner says. "It has a very specific focus, and it will be very different from what is going on at the Research Triangle Park."
There are still holes in the plan, he says. The region will need a research university to be affiliated with the center. UNC Charlotte, he contends, is not yet capable of taking on that role and, in the near term, the center will depend on partnerships with the more distant Triangle universities. But the shape of such alliances should be much clearer by the end of 2006, he says.
Commercial growth ahead?
The new year also promises to bring uptown Charlotte's first major new office
development since the Hearst Tower in 2002. Wachovia plans to start construction
of a 1.2 million-square-foot tower -- including a performing-arts theater,
museum space and condominiums -- at South Tryon and Stonewall streets.
Walden, the N.C. State economist, thinks the picture for commercial development is improving as the economy strengthens. And a spark such as the Wachovia project could be a catalyst for more commercial construction, he says.
"There's a herd mentality," Walden says. "If something is moving in the community, nobody wants to be outdone."
But Warren does not foresee substantial commercial development in the center city over the next 12 months, beyond the Wachovia project.
"Nonbank demand has been marginal over the last three to four years," he says. "The vacancy rate downtown is one of the lowest locally and nationally, but that doesn't mean there is a lot of leasing activity or velocity for development."
He thinks the best chance for uptown commercial construction is in mixed-use projects that combine residential, retail and office space.
And even that market may face challenges.
David Furman, whose Boulevard Centro has four condo projects in uptown, has reduced the commercial space by half in his 28-story TradeMark project on West Trade Street.
"When we first proposed TradeMark, we planned one level of retail space and five levels of office space," he says. "We've cut that back to two levels of office space."
Part of that change was prompted by the strength of residential demand. But weakness in demand for business condominiums was also a factor, Furman says. Companies are more hesitant than individuals to commit to space two years out, he says.
Also, banks remain reluctant lenders, he adds.
"They weren't really keen on financing for office condos," Furman says. "I think somebody just has to do a project and prove it could be done, and that will turn around. But we weren't able to do it this time."
However, he expects to see residential condos to continue to boom. He disputes concerns that, with 3,000 residential spaces announced in the city in the last 12 months or so, the market is nearing the saturation point.
"I think there were 3,000 homes announced in a Cornelius project the other day, and no one batted an eye," he says. "But more people are buying condominiums than single-family homes. That is the growing demographic."
Vitner sees plenty of room for more projects in the coming year. He thinks the Charlotte Bobcats Arena has made uptown more vibrant and attractive, and that trend will continue in 2006. So he expects more projects to be announced in the coming year.
But at some point, residential condo construction is going to become riskier, Vitner contends.
"People who have started planning a project now are probably fine," he says. "But for those who haven't started yet, the clock is ticking."
Housing to decline
Most forecasters say the region's economic signs are encouraging for 2006.
Vitner says about the only thing that could significantly hurt the region
in the coming year would be if housing takes a more precipitous drop than
he expects.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported new-home sales plummeted in November, down 11.3% nationwide from October sales. But the Southeast saw a less dramatic decline of 5.5% -- close to Vitner's projection for the Charlotte area next year.
But Walden and others see another potential problem.
"One clear issue now in Charlotte is the school system," Walden says, citing public discontent and the recently defeated school-bond referendum. "I would count that a negative for the Charlotte region."
It's not simply an issue of training a future work force, business leaders say.
The issue "has already hurt us recruiting top-flight talent," BofA's Lewis said last week. "That's a major impediment to our growth over time."
Ten years ago, BofA's Denton says, top corporate executives could count on local private schools to make room for the children of top candidates.
"Those days are gone," he says. "The schools are full. And there are a lot more alumni around, and of course the alumni children have to have a place as well. It's gotten more difficult."
Jan. 1, 2006
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Highlights for Jan. 2 to 7
2 Monday
* The U.S. financial markets, government offices, banks and many businesses
will be closed for the New Year's holiday.
3 Tuesday
* Economic Forecast Forum sponsored by the N.C. Bankers Association and N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry. Noon, Sheraton Imperial RTP, 4700 Emperor Blvd., Durham. Wachovia CEO Ken Thompson, State Treasurer Richard Moore, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and NCBA economist Harry M. Davis will discuss what is expected for our state and national economies in 2006. $60. Contact: www.ncba.com or www.nccbi.org.4 Wednesday
* N.C. State University economist Michael Walden will discuss his "2006 Economic Forecast for the Nation, the State, and the Triangle Region" at the Knightdale Chamber of Commerce's Eye-Opener Breakfast, 7:30 a.m., Golden Corral, 4201 New Bern Ave., Raleigh. $10. Reservations, 266-4603 or knightdalechamber@knightdalechamber.org.
* 2006 Economic Forecast: The Future of the Triangle's Economy. Presented by Wachovia and RSM McGladrey, 7 to 10 a.m., Meymandi Concert Hall, Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh. Wachovia chief economist John Silvia and Federal Reserve economist Raymond Owens will discuss state and local economic conditions. Cost for members, $35; nonmembers $45. Contact: www.raleighchamber.org or Greg, 664-7082.
6 Friday
* Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce: Central AM Network, 7:30 to 9 a.m., Red Room Tapas Lounge, 510 Glenwood South, Suite 101, Raleigh. Harvey Schmitt, president and CEO of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, is the featured speaker. AM Network members free, nonmembers $15. Contact: www.raleighchamber.org or Greg, 664-7082.
For complete calendar listings, see Friday's Business section.
Economic calendar
TUESDAY: Commerce Department reports on construction spending for November. The Institute for Supply Management issues its report on activity in the manufacturing economy during December.
WEDNESDAY: Automakers release their sales figures for December. Consumer Electronics Show begins in Las Vegas.
THURSDAY: The nation's largest retailers announce their sales figures for December.
FRIDAY: Labor Department reports on employment for December.
Jan. 3, 2006
Charlotte Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
When Smithfield Foods signed a 2002 agreement with North Carolina to seek alternatives to open-air cesspools to handle feces and urine from hog farms, many applauded. Prospects seemed good for a solution that would protect the state's air, water and land from contamination.
More than five years later, however, a grim reality has settled in: While researchers at N.C. State University say they have identified two systems to treat hog wastes, they have yet to come up with solutions that hog farmers and processors believe are economically viable.
Finding alternatives to hog waste lagoons is critical in a state that experiences heavy rains and devastating late-summer storms. The breach of a large lagoon at Oceanview Farms in Onslow County in 1995 and the flooding of many lagoons during Hurricane Floyd in 1999 did more than pollute many Eastern North Carolina waterways. They demonstrated the folly of storing concentrated animal wastes in the open. With more than 10 million hogs, the state keeps its eastern third at risk as long as it tolerates these lagoons.
The Smithfield Foods agreement committed the company to spending $15 million for research on animal waste technology; it also bound the company to replace lagoons at 170 corporate farms within three years -- once a technical panel agreed on the best system to use.
There's the rub. Advisory panels have not agreed that an economically feasible alternative exists. While many farmers are willing to spend more to protect the environment, they evidently aren't prepared to make the sizable investment needed to shift to the leading systems N.C. State researchers have identified. Prof. Mike Williams, who has supervised the research, says more time is needed to bring down the costs of conversion.
It's disappointing that alternatives are so difficult to develop and that some farmers seem unwilling to accept any alternative that involves additional cost or reduction in the hog population.
The industry and state policymakers should keep three things in mind:
• Researchers must stay the course on developing alternatives and reducing costs of conversion. Getting the job done late is better than not at all, but the state cannot delay indefinitely.
• Hog processors as well as hog farmers must not renege on their commitment to cleaning up problems they cause. The industry got considerable good will from the public when it committed to finding solutions. Failing to follow through will invite public contempt and government-imposed solutions.
• Gov. Mike Easley needs to prod the industry to move faster. His leadership helped bring about the agreement with Smithfield. His leadership is needed now to keep this effort on course.
Jan. 1, 2006
Winston-Salem Journal
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
With all of the turmoil during the holidays, some people don't get around to making their New Year's resolutions on time. In a spirit of helpfulness, the Journal offers these suggestions:
President Bush: When traveling out and about in the country, to spend more time talking to the general American public, not just supporters. Isolation is not good for the soul, or for the polling numbers.
Vice President Dick Cheney: To stop lobbying for more taxpayer help for the oil industry. It did pretty well this fall when gasoline cost $3.25 a gallon.
Former (and maybe future) House Majority Leader Tom DeLay: To take fewer expensive trips on the dime of big-time Washington lobbyists, especially those likely to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Bill Frist, Senate majority leader: To stop selling stock in companies your family controls just as the stock's price hits all-time highs.
Congress: To reform immigration control to let honest hard workers in and keep criminals out.
N.C. House Speaker Jim Black: To live up to your recent pledge to never again take anything of value from lobbyists, and then push for a change in state law banning all such gifts to legislators and policy-making executive branch employees.
N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight: To reverse the special budget provision you jammed through the 2005 session. The provision will mean more out-of-state students at UNC system campuses, at state taxpayer expense, while it also becomes harder for North Carolina's youngsters to gain admission.
General Assembly: If the current surplus frees any money for a tax cut in the spring, to use it first to reduce the state sales tax. Gov. Mike Easley and the legislature have twice promised to repeal a half-cent added in 2001, but it's still there.
Gov. Mike Easley: To design an education agenda that will truly direct the new revenues from your "education lottery" to the public schools, rather than using those funds just to supplant existing education spending.
Sen. Ham Horton: To get well, and get back to serving - as always - with distinction in Raleigh.
Erskine Bowles, incoming president of the University of North Carolina system: To rein in maverick chancellors, and their political allies, who want to give special treatment to UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State University while also steadily raising tuition.
Mayor Allen Joines of Winston-Salem: To clone yourself and give the copy your job if you decide to run for the 5th District congressional seat and win it.
Chancellor Harold Martin of Winston-Salem State University: To just keep doing what you're doing in putting WSSU on the map. A clone of you would be nice as well, so it could be given to the huge school that tries to lure you away.
The Forsyth County Department of Social Services and the agencies that work with it in efforts to protect children: To iron out the kinks in the system of protecting children, so that far fewer of them are abused.
The Clemmons Nursing and Rehab Center: To provide the competent care that your elderly and disabled residents deserve.
Davie County Sheriff Allen Whitaker: To resolve the problems in your department and restore public trust in it.
The Forsyth County Board of Elections staff: To have the patience of Job in dealing with the less than state-of-the-art voting machines that the elections board insisted on.
Tanglewood Park Manager Doug Joldersma: To resolve the financial mismanagement problems at the park and turn it into the tourist attraction it should be by reopening the park campground.
Alleghany County grass-roots activists: To continue your efforts to preserve the mountain beauty of your county.
Molly Leight and Evelyn Terry, new Winston-Salem councilwomen: To impress upon fellow council members the importance of historic preservation, especially when considering recommendations for historic-landmark status.
Politicians and law-enforcement officers: To continue your fight against the methamphetamine makers who are plaguing Northwest North Carolina and many other rural spots nationwide.
The state Department of Health and Human Services: To finally follow through on efforts to provide health-care and education benefits to those sterilized by the state eugenics program, which ended in 1974.
A memorial to those sterilized and lessons about the program for state public-school students are also still needed.
Robin Pendergraft, the director of the State Bureau of Investigation: To continue efforts to correct problems in the handling of DNA evidence in the SBI's lab - to ensure that the guilty are captured and the innocent aren't wrongly charged or imprisoned.
State legislators: To enact a moratorium on North Carolina's death penalty - before the state executes an innocent person.
Carmen Hooker Odom, the secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services: To continue efforts to reform this state's flawed system of home health care.
North Carolina's poultry plants: To improve working conditions for all your workers, and to encourage more Hispanic workers to report their on-the-job injuries.
All Americans: To savor the fact that yelling "Happy New Year!!!!!!" won't start a culture war - although it could get you clobbered by some hung-over slob.
And, so as not to leave ourselves out, the Journal editorial staff resolves to do whatever we can to help make 2006 a year of lively yet civil and thoughtful discourse.
We hope you'll join us in that effort.
Dec. 31, 2005
Durham Herald-Sun
By staff report
© Copyright 2005
Chatham County seems poised on the edge of massive change. But exactly what
that change will be and who will fashion it are relative unknowns at the beginning
of the new year.
Major housing and mixed-use developments, such as the 2,400-home Briar Chapel and the 295-acre Booth Hill, already have been approved, but the devil, as they say, is in the details.
Slow-growth proponents in the county, such as Chatham Citizens for Effective Communities, have vowed to oppose these neighborhoods -- and any future developments -- at every turn.
Two zoning changes are on the table that could hasten even greater growth in the county. The 10/70 rule, which would allow higher-density development and conditional zoning, which would revamp the permitting process, are both scheduled for discussion by the board in early 2006.
In the commercial-growth arena, the much-discussed possibility of building a Wal-Mart SuperCenter in northeastern Chatham never became a tangible project last year. But many will continue to watch the Starpoint site on the edge of the Chatham/Orange County line for signs of development.
Lee-Moore Oil, who owns the site, has said definitively that it plans to build a big-box store on the land. Chatham First, a group opposing Wal-Mart, has said it will fight to keep any big box store out of northern Chatham County.
The county commissioners who have led the push for more development -- Chairman Bunkey Morgan, along with Tommy Emerson and Carl Outz -- all will see their seats up for re-election this year. It's likely the electoral battle will be joined by those favoring a slower-growth approach.
-- Jennifer Ferris
UNC
At both Chapel Hill and the other schools in the UNC system, leaders won't waste any time getting things started in 2006.
The UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees plans in January to take up the question of tuition increases for the Carolina campus, along with the possible addition of a couple of $50 fees, related to athletics and administrative computing.
A campus task force on tuition has laid out three options, and Chancellor James Moeser will recommend a tuition plan to the trustees. Two of the task force's options call for $300 increases for in-state tuition, while the others include increases of $200 and $250 for in-state students.
In one of the options that would raise in-state tuition for undergrads by $300, the rates for out-of-state students would jump by $800. The other $300 in-state option for undergrads includes a $600 increase for undergrads from outside North Carolina, and a $500 hike for out-of-state graduate students.
The Board of Governors for the UNC system ultimately has to approve any increases.
Also on the tuition front, 2006 could bring a renewed effort by leaders at UNC Chapel Hill and N.C. State University -- the two flagships -- to get special authority for deciding their own tuition, rather than having the Board of Governors get the final say.
Wading right into the battle will be Erskine Bowles, who takes over as president of the university system this week.
The planned tuition increases are designed, in part, to help boost the pay for faculty. Moeser plans to harp even more strongly this year on the need to improve compensation for faculty, both to recruit quality professors and to keep them.
Bowles has said that convincing state legislators and others of that need would be an important part of his job.
Bowles' arrival also raises the question of whether he'll keep all the system officials in place at the main offices in Chapel Hill, or bring in new people.
Across town at the Carolina North property on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, UNC officials say there's a good chance that this year they will bring town officials the latest plans for how Carolina hopes to develop a research campus there in the coming decades.
-- Rob Shapard
Pointers help you keep poinsettia all year
Dec. 31, 2005
News & Observer
By Gary L. Pierce
© Copyright 2005
Q. How can I bring in the new year with my poinsettia?
A. This plant should easily last through January. It is even possible to enjoy
its flowers again next year. Be sure that your poinsettia is only drinking
water at the New Year's celebration or this will be its last year.
How long your poinsettia will last depends on the maturity of the plant, the date you purchased it and your maintenance plan. The last factor is the most important. Poinsettias should retain their beauty for six weeks or longer in your home. Some of the new varieties will last much longer if they are given adequate light, water, fertilizer and proper temperature.
Poinsettias are grown in greenhouses with night temperatures of 60 to 65 degrees, a high relative humidity and maximum sunlight. Therefore, place your plant in an area where it receives the most natural light. Plants may be placed in the middle of a room for a week or so, but they should be moved near a window whenever possible. Avoid cold drafts from doorways or excessive heat from television sets, radiators or heating ducts.Your plant will last longer if it is moved to a cool room at night. However, the temperature needs to stay above 50 degrees.
Examine the plant regularly and water it whenever the soil looks and feels dry. Poinsettias are water hogs. However, frequency of watering will depend primarily on the temperature at which you keep your poinsettia. Plants in cool rooms (55 to 65 degrees) will require less moisture. Water each plant until the water begins to trickle from the bottom of the pot. If the plant is wrapped with a decorative foil, either punch a hole in the foil or remove it. If a hole is punched in the foil, then place a pot or saucer under the plant to prevent damage to furniture or flooring.
Light fertilization once a month, with a water soluble fertilizer, will be sufficient. After the fear of frost in the spring, the poinsettias may be moved outside. They may even be planted directly into the ground. To make the leaves turn red again, in September begin covering the entire plant with a paper bag every night from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. Be sure to bring them into the house on frosty nights. Even a light frost will kill these tropical plants.
Poinsettias have been a Christmas tradition longer than Santa Claus. Since the plants were introduced in the United States from Mexico by Joel R. Poinsett in 1825 (the U.S. ambassador to Mexico who later became a colonel in the Confederate Army), poinsettias' popularity has blossomed steadily.
Contrary to popular belief, poinsettias are not toxic. However, these plants are intended solely for ornamental purposes. Happy New Year and have a wonderful holiday season!
If you have any questions about Chia pets, contact the Cooperative Extension Office in your county.
To contact the agent for your area, call 513-3045, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, or visit www.ces.ncsu.edu. The Cooperative Extension also publishes Successful Gardener (www.successfulgardener.org), a helpful monthly newsletter that can be picked up at area garden centers. Call 513-3112 for more information.
Dec. 31, 2006
Charlotte Obser
By J. Andrew Curliss, Jane Stancill and Lynn Bonner
© Copyright 2006
Erskine Bowles, the new president of the UNC system, recently gave some advice to nearly 1,000 graduates at Appalachian State University's winter graduation. The December speech might offer some clues to how he will operate in his new job.
How to be successful, according to Bowles:
* Don't promise something you can't deliver - "Be that person who under-promises, and for God's sake never over-promise," he said. "It's like when I get home at 7:30 at night. If I tell my wife I'll be home at 8 and I get home at 7:30, I am a hero. But if I tell her I'll be home at 7 and I get home at that exact 7:30, I'm in the doghouse. Either way, I got home at 7:30. But one way I am a hero, the other way I am a dog."
* Always do quality. "If you are going to do it, do it right. My experience has been that a job well done is the best advertising you can have."
* Say thank you. "Take time to show you are grateful and you'll find that other folks will bust their buttons to make you look good."
* Encourage creativity and embrace change. "I want you to know you can make substantive change, you can improve your product -- even in the government -- but you have to create an atmosphere that encourages creativity. You have to have the courage to change. You must embrace change and treat it as your friend."
* Give to your community. "It doesn't matter if you are to the right of Jesse Helms or to the left of Ted Kennedy. All of us can find the time to try in our own way to make this world a better place."
* Save time for your family. "When you look for a job, look for a family-friendly place to work, one that encourages you to spend time with your family. Then do it."
Marshall's gold-record effort
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall received a framed gold record last month for putting a crimp in music sales. The Recording Industry Association of America gave Marshall her special award for her work fighting music piracy in the state and for setting an example for how a state can fight counterfeiting. Underwriters Laboratories gave Marshall a plaque for her work fighting fakes, and the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, which has the state as a member, gave Marshall a GetREAL award.
The presentations fell on the swearing-in day for anti-counterfeit task force members -- municipal, county and state law enforcement officers who work with Marshall's office to stop manufacture and sale of faked brand name merchandise.
Curliss can be reached at 829-4840 or acurliss@newsobserver.com.
Bowle embraces job with intensity, finesse
Jan. 1, 2006
News & Observer
By Jane Stancill
© Copyright 2006
Erskine Bowles brokered deals on Wall Street and ran Bill Clinton's White House, so it's no surprise that he is taking over the UNC system presidency with a businessman's eye and a politician's touch.
So far, Bowles the businessman has cracked the whip on top UNC staff, presenting them with homework assignments about a week before Christmas.
This week, Bowles the politician will entertain legislators from both sides of the aisle at a Tar Heels basketball game. He has already schmoozed with his former political foe, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, hosting Burr and his sons in front-row seats at UNC-Chapel Hill's Smith Center.
Bowles, 60, officially succeeds retiring UNC President Molly Broad today, but he has already toured the 16 campuses and met one on one with chancellors, UNC board members and legislators. He has jotted notes during conversations with professors, students and university workers. And he has picked the brains of other university presidents in the United States and abroad.
" I tried to do everything I can to really hit the ground running," he said in an interview Friday.
Already there are signs of change at the UNC system's headquarters in Chapel Hill -- a 125-employee operation that has, at times, been a target of legislators' criticism. Two vice presidents will leave their posts for jobs on UNC campuses by March, and the senior academic vice president, Gretchen Bataille, is now interim chancellor at the N.C. School of the Arts. Bowles said he did not initiate the changes, which he called part of a natural transition.
The man who once ran the White House assures folks that he is just one of the staff. He has taken to calling the UNC system staff "general administration" again, a term Broad had dropped in favor of the more reverential "office of the president."
Keep it simple
Bowles eschews the pomp attached to the job. In a December memo to top staff, he suggested ditching his inauguration planned for the spring. "Can I not have one and instead make an address to the legislature and use the funds we would have spent [on the celebration] on need-based scholarships?" he wrote.
" If we must have one," he added, "would anyone be offended if we kept the cost very low?"
The vice presidents replied that he should have at least a modest celebration, one he insists will be paid for with private donations.
" I want to do everything I can to let people know I get it, that we live in a time of limited resources," Bowles said.
He is not sheepish about being in charge. In his five-page memo to staff, he instructed each administrator to list his or her top five or six goals for 2006, along with quantifiable measures of accountability, cost, timelines and funding sources. He asked for status reports on more than 30 university issues, including UNC's relationship with public schools and community colleges, online education, privately developed dormitories and campus safety.
He wanted to know about moves by UNC-Pembroke to establish an optometry program and by East Carolina to start a dental school. He wanted to know the status of UNC's partnership with Dole Foods to revitalize the mill town of Kannapolis. He wanted to know what could be done to increase scholarships and to commercialize professors' research.
Those who have watched Bowles in action say they are surprised at how much he has already done.
" I started as a skeptic, and yet he has already impressed me with his diligence and hard work even before he officially assumes the responsibilities of the office," said Brent Barringer, a UNC Board of Governors member from Cary.
At UNC-CH in November, Bowles said that he wanted to help universities excel but that he thought the campuses should have more specific missions. He referred to the UNC system's long-term plan as "squishy."
Early in his tenure, Bowles will be confronted with big issues, including the always contentious debate over tuition. The UNC board is wrestling with how to allow campuses more freedom to set tuition while making rates more predictable for families. Many fear that higher bills and more student debt will make college less affordable.
A shorter wish list
Bowles spent the first couple of months in big-picture discussions, and now he is starting to focus on the details. The UNC system has begun to put together a budget request for the next legislative session, and observers say Bowles will have a more targeted plan in asking for money. The UNC budget request probably won't look like a phone book anymore.
" His approach is to have a shorter list rather than a longer list, with clearly defined priorities," said Brad Wilson, chairman of the UNC board.
In his memo to UNC staff, Bowles wrote, "If everything is a priority, nothing is."
Financial matters should be one of his strong suits, Wilson said. Bowles will likely take on new roles in higher education organizations but keep his hand in the corporate world. In December, he was named to the board of Morgan Stanley, a huge financial-services firm. It is one of four corporate boards on which Bowles will serve, adding handsome outside pay to his UNC salary of $425,000. (He has said he will donate $125,000 of that each year to need-based financial aid.)
" I'm not troubled by that," Wilson said of Bowles' board memberships. "In fact, some of the board service he is engaged in could be helpful to the university."
Having started his career at Morgan Stanley, Bowles said he owed the company. But he stressed that his first priority is the university system. "If I see myself spread thin at all," he said, "then by golly I'll be the first to say I'll cut back on the outside activities."
Bowles' North Carolina roots and connections have been on display. Heads turned when the president-to-be strode into the UNC basketball game with Burr, who defeated him in the 2004 U.S. Senate race. Some called it a master political stroke.
" They got even more attention than [coach] Roy Williams," Barringer said jokingly. "That pretty well typifies all those personal, professional and family advantages."
On Monday, Bowles and his bulldog will move into the UNC president's Franklin Street home, where his wife, Springs Industries CEO Crandall Bowles, will join him frequently from Charlotte.
Now that Bowles' crash course in academia is done, he will begin his new career.
" I'm very excited," he said. "I can't wait for Tuesday."
Jan. 3, 2006
Newsday (NY)
By JEFF KASS
© Copyright 2006
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- A former fraternity house where a student died of alcohol poisoning has become home to an unusual college ministry that focuses on alcohol abuse.
The Lighthouse, which opened in August just off campus at Colorado State University, is sponsored by the nearby Timberline Church and has already inspired a similar project in North Carolina.
While college ministries might be expected to preach against alcohol, officials with local, state and national church organizations representing a variety of denominations are unaware of any other college ministry with such an overriding focus on drinking. And safety, not prohibition, is one of the Lighthouse's main goals.
The home provides a free pancake dinner Friday nights from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. to ensure that students have food in their stomachs to absorb alcohol. Timberline also runs free shuttles from Fort Collins bars back to campus or private homes to prevent drunken driving.
And the church hands out 16.9-ounce water bottles to Fort Collins bar patrons to promote hydration. "You'll never thirst again," says the label on one water bottle, which also includes a quote from John 4:14 attributed to Jesus: "It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life."
Another bottle has a label with tips on how to recognize alcohol poisoning, and a picture of Samantha "Sam" Spady, the sophomore whose death last year inspired the Lighthouse.
The closest the Lighthouse (accessible online at flipminis tries.com/lighthouse.htm) comes to preaching prohibition is sponsoring alcohol-free parties. Residents in the mansion across from campus also sign a pledge that they will not drink any alcohol, anywhere, while living at the Lighthouse.
"We're not trying to kill someone's college experience," says Reza Zadeh, 28, Timberline's young adult pastor, who founded the Lighthouse. "We just don't want them to get killed while in college."
Spady died there Labor Day weekend of 2004. The 19-year-old spent her last night drinking at a number of places, including Sigma Pi. Early Sunday morning she was brought to a second-floor lounge there to pass out.
She died there of acute alcohol poisoning. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.43. The coroner's office estimated she had consumed the equivalent of 30 to 40 beers.
Sigma Pi Fraternity International revoked the fraternity's local charter days later, and the brothers moved out. Timberline, an Assemblies of God church, pitched in $200,000 to renovate the house.
Twenty-one students, four resident assistants and a house manager live in the three-story Lighthouse, with women on the top floor and men on the second. The main floor includes a dining room, computer room and game room that once held a bar, Zadeh says.
Lighthouse resident and CSU sophomore Jared Petsche's pad looks like a typical dorm room. But a wall also holds a small dry-erase board listing people for whom the 19-year-old is to pray.
The room where Spady died has been converted to a prayer room.
"It's a very creative approach by a church," Philip Jenks, spokesman for the National Council of Churches U.S.A., which represents 35 denominations but not Assemblies of God, said of the Lighthouse. He later added, "To use a non-Christian term, it seems like a superb example of karma."
David Haydysch is a senior at North Carolina State University in Raleigh and president of the Chi Alpha Omega Christian fraternity. A radio program inspired him to start a local version of the Lighthouse.
This month Haydysch and a group of supporters handed out 1,000 store-bought water bottles during a pub crawl. Pancake dinners are planned for next semester, and Haydysch says he might open Lighthouses at campuses across the country.
"The Lighthouse to me offered hope for the future," said Samantha Spady's mother, Patty Spady, 48, by phone from her home in Beatrice, Neb. "It is putting the kids on notice that not everything has to be surrounded by alcohol."
In NC, Scandal Arrives Before New State Lottery
Jan. 3, 2006
GamblingMagazine.com, Lottery Post (NJ)
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
When North Carolina's legislature relented from its decades-long opposition to a state lottery this summer, preachers and conservative lawmakers warned that wherever gambling goes, scandal follows.
Even they never predicted it would arrive so fast.
State House Speaker Jim Black (D) is in the midst of a controversy over his role and that of a top aide who turned out to be working for a firm hoping to land the contract to run the lottery. Black has been compiling boxes of documents that have been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury examining how the lottery won approval.
Three of the nine lottery commissioners, meanwhile, resigned within a month of their appointments. One stepped down two days before testifying to the grand jury, and another bowed out after it was revealed that he received $24,500 from the same firm that hired the speaker's aide.
" We've never had, in anybody's memory, certainly not in the past 100 years, we've not had anything like this," said former House speaker Joe Mavretic (D).
The lottery imbroglio is emitting a strong odor of backroom, back-scratching politics over a state that traditionally has fancied itself enjoying a more honest, more modern government than the rest of the South.
" This is a stain," said Andrew Taylor, a political analyst at North Carolina State University. "We've not been a state run by a few strongarm leaders. It's been more inclusive and transparent than in most other Southern states. That's been a sort of badge of honor."
This self-image is one reason that North Carolina -- the last state on the East Coast without a lottery -- resisted for years the easy revenue that flows from public games. The anti-lottery coalition included conservatives, who decried the morality of making the state a numbers runner, and liberals, who bemoaned that lotteries earn much of their money by exploiting strike-it-rich fantasies of the poor.
In 2001, a recession arrived, and some of the resistance departed. Mike Easley (D), the new governor, was the first chief executive to endorse a lottery.
That same year, South Carolina created its game, luring players across the state line. Two years later it was Tennessee's turn. North Carolina, struggling to balance budgets, was surrounded by lotteries, and Easley's appeals were resonating more widely. North Carolinians, he said, were playing other states' lotteries and paying for their schools.
This year, Democrats, who control the General Assembly, shoehorned the lottery through the House but faced a one-vote deficit in the Senate. Democratic Senate leaders, who had declared their business done and sent members home, abruptly called them back a week later during the absence of two Republicans. The game passed.
Black's office received subpoenas for hundreds of documents covering a range of people and subjects, including the lottery's passage, Norris, her clients, Scientific Games and one of its lobbyists. FBI agents also asked for records from a country club where Black held meetings.
Black curtly brushed off Republican calls for his resignation and emphasized that the grand jury has not charged anyone. "Why should I step down?" he asked in an interview. "I've not been accused of anything. I'm still doing a good job. . . . Everywhere I go, I'm facing larger crowds than I ever have and they're as supportive as ever."
Scientific Games revealed the $24,500 it paid to one of the nine new lottery commissioners for lobbying.
" What do you expect the private sector to do when the competition is for a billion-dollar instant business that's a monopoly, that's guaranteed by contract with the full faith and credit of the 10th-largest state in the country?" asked Mavretic, the former House speaker. "What do you think private industry would do to get such a deal? They'd shoot their mothers."
Kevin Geddings, the commissioner who resigned, had omitted the Scientific Games payments from his signed disclosure form and denied any financial ties when asked by the commission chairman and the governor's staff. Geddings was one of two commissioners appointed by Black.
Another commissioner already had resigned because of the workload, and a third -- also appointed by Black -- stepped down after receiving a subpoena from the grand jury. He testified two days later.
The lottery commission has targeted an April 5 start for North Carolina's game, four months after the executive director began work. Only Tennessee has started its lottery so quickly, but Easley said the disruption over the lottery commissioners is over. Once the game is underway, he said, it will soon be generating money earmarked for teachers, schools and scholarships.
" The big deal is what it pays for, what it provides, the opportunity it provides," Easley said, "and that is the only reason why I have ever had any interest in supporting it. It's just a means, it's a process."
The Tar Heel state is predictably suffering through exactly what other states endured when they stepped into the gambling world, said Daniel T. Blue Jr., a Democrat and former state House speaker. It is the price for raising an estimated $425 million a year in education money.
" It's the age-old smell test: Even if you don't see it, if it smells bad, you tend to be repulsed by it. You keep suspecting there's something that's bound to create the stink," Blue said. "Is the money worth all the stain against the state's reputation?"
The answer may be yes. Recent North Carolina polls continue to show overwhelming public support for the lottery.
Across the USA: North Carolina: Raleigh
Jan. 3, 2006
USA Today
By staff report
© Copyright 2006
Erskin Bowles, President Clinton's White House chief of staff and two-time U.S. Senate candidate, has taken over as president of the University of North Carolina system. Bowles has toured 16 campuses and met with chancellors, UNC board members and legislators. He also has talked with professors, students and university workers.