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Cree decides on the Triangle
born almost 20 years ago from research at N.C. State UniversityCree stays home for expansion
born almost 20 years ago from research at N.C. State UniversityDurham Firm To Add 300 Jobs
Cree was born almost 20 years ago from research at N.C. State University.Video gaming technology branching out, getting serious
The Army built this studio just outside Raleigh for its proximity to talent produced by Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
ECU-based
researchers near end of four-year heat study
Agromedicine Institute
Runoff
calls for big stir in tiny pool
Marshall Stewart, worked at N.C. State University coordinating agricultural
education courses for public school teachers
Democrats
in runoff for top education job
Marshall Stewart, worked at N.C. State University coordinating agricultural
education courses for public school teachers
Feds:
Durham out of step on disabilities law
Laurie Ringaert, Center for Universal Design
Center
sketches received tepidly
bell tower
BASF
Professional Pest Control teams up with Hurricanes
sponsorship deals
UNC employees
to get $1,000 raise
Public university professors and some other UNC workers will get raises of
at least $1,000 this year under a plan approved by administrators.
Miami
upsets family
Lee Fowler, John Fagg, atheletics
Letter
to the editor: Raleigh's opportunity
land expansion
Editorial:
For superintendent
Marshall Stewart, worked at N.C. State University coordinating agricultural
education courses for public school teachers
Scientists
seek better way to measure rain
Ryan Boyles, state climate office
Video
gaming technology branching out, getting serious
The Army built this studio just outside Raleigh for its proximity to talent
produced by Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Study
measures heat, health effects of arm work
Agromedicine Institute
Center sketches received tepidly
Aug. 11, 2004
News & Observer
By J. ANDREW CURLISS
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH -- Designers of a new convention center outlined the first rough sketches Tuesday of what the mammoth $180 million downtown building could look like.
Architects said they are focused on the four corners of the building, aiming to make each one a gateway that will bring people in and move them out while reflecting the part of the city it faces.
One corner could have a tall "beacon," a mostly artistic tower that could be lit at night in different colors or hold banners announcing events.
Another corner shows an overlook with a tall, wide staircase. A coffee shop could be below it at the ground level, and splashy fountains or a wall of water are shown nearby.
The overall design concept borrows from an everyday home: The designers talked of the center having a porch, a welcome mat, a threshold, a living room and a great room.
"This is a building that fits only in Raleigh," said Scott Sickeler, an Atlanta architect working on the plans. "There would be no other building like it in the world."
It is set to open in 2007.
Elected officials, who reviewed and discussed the plans for about 90 minutes, weren't as enthused.
From council member Janet Cowell: "This sketch doesn't resonate with me. ... Where's the warmth?"
Council member Neal Hunt struggled for words to describe what he thought. "It's not stately," he said, finally.
Added council member James West, "It just does not jump out, to me."
County commissioners Chairman Kenn Gardner called the porch, which is shown with a planted covering, "an Incan pagoda with kudzu."
Sickeler smiled. "We're calling the kudzu, actually, wisteria," he said.
Later, Gardner said there would be plenty of time for revisions.
"It's a long process, and they're at the beginning," he said. "It might be cluttered right now, but it's like throwing things on the wall and then seeing what sticks. The good ideas will boil down and remain."
The three architectural firms handling the design were looking for lots of feedback and agreed that nothing is settled. They met all day with various groups.
At least one more all-day series of comment sessions is planned for next month, with a more refined design set to be released in mid-October.
Steve Schuster, a Raleigh architect who has led dozens of meetings on the design, said the convention center is not meant to be like Memorial Auditorium or the Capitol.
Those are buildings that reflect the 1800s and 1900s -- the periods when they were built.
"They are very much from their time," Schuster said. "We are trying to make this building relate to ours. It very much should be a building that relates to 2007."
The designers are drawing on North Carolina-inspired materials and designs in all of their work: granite, brick and wood, though the building's size requires plenty of glass and steel.
Sketches on Tuesday showed inspiration coming from the Capitol, the N.C. State University bell tower and other Raleigh landmarks; the Biltmore Estate and Grove Park Inn in Asheville; Pinehurst Resort in the Sandhills; a typical brick mill and other neighborhood scenes with corner stores.
There is even a version of the old Burma Shave roadside advertisements -- small signs one after another, each with a few words, that add up to a message for speeding cars.
The Burma Shave concept, with some kind of repeating artwork, is thought to work on the building's McDowell Street side, where 40,000 vehicles zip past every day.
The building, Schuster said, is not in a block or area of downtown where it will be seen from long vistas, which led to the focus on developing the corners and making them interesting to pedestrians.
"You don't get four blocks away and see the face of the building," he said. "This building is all about those corners."
Aug. 11, 2004
News & Observer
By JONATHAN B. COX
© Copyright 2004
Cree said Tuesday that it will expand its manufacturing plant near Research Triangle Park, investing at least $300 million and creating 300 jobs.
The Durham semiconductor company, born almost 20 years ago from research at N.C. State University, chose the Triangle over sites in Virginia and Asia. It was lured by tax breaks and incentives potentially worth $5.1 million.
The decision is a victory for North Carolina, which has labored to retain industry amid growing -- and cheaper -- competition overseas. Cree's expansion could make it easier to attract other high-tech businesses to the area, economic development leaders said.
"The world is growing smaller, so you have to make sure that you're competitive," said Thomas J. White, president of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce. Cree's growth "provides persuasive evidence that this is a good location to not only establish a business but to expand."
Cree, which employs about 1,200 worldwide, mostly in Durham, said it will begin adding to its Triangle operations this fall. The investment in new facilities, equipment and jobs, primarily manufacturing and research positions with average annual pay of $50,000, will come during the next five years.
The company declined to say precisely where it will build, only that the expansion will be near its present campus on Silicon Drive in Durham. Cree owns about 80 undeveloped acres near that site.
The plan should sate its needs for now. But it won't preclude Cree from eventually looking overseas for additional space.
For months, Cree, a maker of chips used to illuminate mobile phones, car dashboards and electronic devices, considered its options for growth. The company is logging surging demand for its products and is running out of space in Durham to make them.
It had record revenue of $90.86 million during the three months ending in June. It forecasts higher sales for the current quarter.
The expansion is "very important," said Tom Sepenzis, an analyst who follows Cree for ThinkEquity Partners in San Francisco. "They've been operating at capacity. You can't grow if you don't have the room to grow."
There was no guarantee that Cree would build in the Triangle. The company gets almost three-quarters of its revenue in Asia, where its biggest customers and biggest competitors are located.
But the challenges of setting up overseas operations, for now, were too many. Cynthia Merrell, Cree's chief financial officer, specifically cited concerns about intellectual property protections.
Though rules and laws exist to protect company and technology secrets, enforcement of them throughout much of Asia is lax. A company could be devastated if a worker in China or another country distributed proprietary data.
"Today is about North Carolina. It just made sense to try to continue the expansion here near home," Merrell said. "It doesn't mean in the future we might not look at other options overseas.
"At some point, we might find a need to expand some of our operations in Asia for competitive reasons and cost reasons."
With globalization, companies increasingly are demanding that their suppliers establish operations near their facilities. Because Cree supplies raw chips that are then packaged into usable forms, it might be beneficial to be closer to customers, experts have said.
Plus, labor is cheaper in the Far East than in the United States. Chinese factory workers, for instance, can cost employers 80 cents to $1.20 an hour, including benefits, according to China Strategies, a consulting firm.
Swoboda, in a statement, said that the package of incentives cobbled together by state leaders was key to the company's decision.
The state promised as much as $5.1 million over 11 years, based on Cree's hiring. It will get a grant from the state equal to 65 percent of the personal income tax withheld from the paychecks of each new worker.
In addition, Cree won't have to pay sales taxes on lumber, cement and other building materials to construct new facilities.
Durham County estimated it will lose about $1.6 million in sales tax revenue. County leaders had worked on a separate package of incentives for Cree, but the company was satisfied with the state's offer, said Durham County Manager Mike Ruffin.
Tax and other incentives have become an important tool as North Carolina seeks to recruit and retain businesses.
Runoff calls for big stir in tiny pool
Aug. 11, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By ANNA GRIFFIN
© Copyright 2004
Expect a lot of lonely election workers across North Carolina next week.
Voters will go to the polls Tuesday for runoffs in several U.S. House and General Assembly races. There is just one statewide runoff, between Democratic superintendent candidates June Atkinson and Marshall Stewart. Because of that, state law requires that every precinct in North Carolina be open and staffed by at least three poll workers.
Neither candidate expects turnout to be anything but pitiful. Both are spending their days wooing a small pool of potential supporters.
"This race is all about who can move their people to actually go vote," Stewart said this week.
And J.B. Buxton's people. The 34-year-old seemed like the candidate of the establishment in last month's primary, running on time served as Gov. Mike Easley's senior education adviser and endorsements from former Gov. Jim Hunt and the N.C. Association of Educators.
But on July 20, Stewart finished first with 135,348 votes, or 35 percent of the vote. Atkinson trailed close behind with 132,041, or 34 percent. Buxton finished third with 30 percent. He has opted not to endorse a candidate.
Atkinson and Stewart agree on the big issues of the day: Both want to raise teacher pay, lower class size and fight efforts to privatize education through the use of vouchers and other private school incentives.
Stewart, 41, has said he supports reducing the state's reliance on standardized testing to judge teachers and students, and he's promised a statewide bond referendum to pay for school construction and renovations. A former Future Farmers of America administrator, Stewart plays up his rural roots and likes to describe himself as the candidate with the closest ties to working families. He taught high school farming courses for two years, and most recently worked at N.C. State University coordinating agricultural education courses for public school teachers.
"Somebody asked me the other day why I don't mention that I have a Ph.D. on my Web site," he said. "I'm a doctor, and I'm proud of that. But it's not who I am."
Atkinson, 55, has said she will focus on reforming high schools and reducing dropout rates. She's promised to improve working conditions for teachers and increase the number of third-graders reading at or above grade level. She is a former teacher who has the polish of a longtime administrator; Atkinson recently retired from the Department of Public Instruction, where she specialized in vocational education over a 28-year stint.
"We don't have any time to waste, so the transition time between the old superintendent and the new one needs to be kept to a minimum," she said. "I'm the only candidate who can walk in the door ready, without any dramatic transition period."
Both candidates oppose the suggestion that the superintendent be appointed by the governor rather than elected, though Atkinson says that the campaign has helped her understand why some people -- including outgoing Superintendent Mike Ward -- support the idea.
In recent years, the General Assembly and the governor have taken much of the authority for day-to-day running of the state's public schools away from the superintendent onto the State Board of Education. Today, the superintendent largely serves as an adviser to the board, and key education decisions increasingly come from the General Assembly.
"Whoever is elected, how much authority they have is really totally dependent on the goodwill of the board," said John Dornan, president of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, a nonprofit think tank studying education policies in the Tar Heel State. "That's one reason very little attention is being paid to this race."
The statewide runoff will cost taxpayers between $3 million and $3.5 million, according to the State Board of Elections. Elections officials expect between 5 percent and 10 percent of those eligible to vote to cast ballots, compared with the 15 percent who voted in the primary.
Atkinson could have opted not to call for the runoff. She said she felt like she had to, given that she lost by only 3,307 votes. Stewart said he wasn't surprised.
"It's her constitutional right," he said. "I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision, but I don't blame her for doing it."
Stewart and Atkinson each are concentrating on a small pool of potential voters, people who supported them in the primary or who have a special interest in education. Atkinson says she's not planning on running any TV or radio spots, and is campaigning primarily through mailings, e-mail and telephone calls from supporters.
She's stopped using automated calls after a pre-primary snafu in which her robocalls rang some voters late at night. The next day, her campaign office -- actually her Raleigh townhouse -- received a flood of complaints. One man called at 6:30 a.m., telling her he wanted to wake her the way she'd awoken him.
Stewart was coy this week about whether he planned a last-minute TV buy. Like Atkinson, he's primarily campaigning through mailers and telephone calls. Even the traditional slate of campaign events -- Democratic dinners and other campaign meet-and-greets -- has slimmed in the runoff.
Conventional political wisdom says that a runoff helps the opposition, in this case Republican nominee Bill Fletcher. But Atkinson and Stewart both say that's not true in this case.
"This is what they call a down-ballot race," Atkinson said. "Every little bit of attention helps."
ECU-based researchers near end of four-year heat study
Aug. 11, 2004
Greenville Daily Reflector
By Erin Rickert
© Copyright 2004
WILSON — The air pungent with the smell of freshly cured tobacco, migrant workers, their shirts and hats wringing-wet with sweat, shake bins releasing pounds of tobacco leaves.
Armed with rakes and many wearing cotton gloves, they rush to sort the yellowing leaves, heaving the more desirable into the bailer.
Every few moments, they pause to wipe their perspiration-beaded brows as heat sensors in the pole barn of E.B. Lancaster Farms record temperatures of 105 degrees.
In the corner, an audience of researchers from the N.C. Agromedicine Institute, equipped with clipboards, prepare lounge chairs, scales and cool drinks as they wait patiently for workers to break.
The ECU-based researchers are collecting the final data in a four-year heat stress study that explores how temperature affects farm workers. The study has gathered information ranging from the impact of buildings near the field to the type of crops workers are harvesting.
After analyzing the data, which they expect to finish collecting in September, the scientists and educators hope to release findings that will help farms improve the health, safety and productivity of the laborers who work their land.
The Agromedicine Institute, based in Greenville and a joint venture of N.C. State University, N.C. A&T State University and East Carolina University, began research after receiving a request from the N.C. Department of Labor. Researchers involved in the study said there were several reports of fatalities, brain damage and other serious injuries affecting farm workers.
John Sabella, interim director of the N.C. Agromedicine Institute, said one migrant worker was even sent back to Mexico in a vegetative state.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the study cost nearly $250,000 for the four-year period.
It was conducted on eight farms, each classified by the state as a gold star farm, meaning only migrant workers in the United States on a temporary H-2A visa were employed.
Researchers were asked to help farms avoid heat-related injuries, so they set out to find what causes the complications and ways to alleviate them.
Since researchers first ventured into the heat in 2000, they have tested dozens of workers for blood pressure, respiratory rates and temperatures in the ears, mouth and on the forehead. They also checked pulse rates while the workers were lying and standing.
Eating and sleeping patterns were surveyed, and cognitive tests were performed, all while heat sensors measured temperatures in different parts of the fields.
With only a few opportunities left to gather information in the waning days of summer, new and veteran researchers continue to test theories on remaining visits to the three farms where assessments have been conducted this season.
Betsy Banks, 65, began working with the study four years ago to fulfill requirements for her master's degree in nursing from ECU. Banks, who is the registered nurse helping with the study, said there are many dangers when working in high heat and humidity.
Heat stroke and heat exhaustion are some of the most severe forms of heat-related illness. Yet Banks has only seen milder forms of heat illness during her time on the study.
"Heat cramps are the beginning signs of dehydration," Banks said. "I have seen this during the study, but you just want to pile on fluids."
Other researchers said they have witnessed workers complaining of headaches, sore throats, faintness and heavy perspiration.
Researchers spend long days recording the complications and other findings, beginning at 5 a.m. and typically finishing about 5 p.m. twice a week.
Each day they work, supplies are assembled and they start assessing subjects as the workers wake and head to the fields. The assessments are repeated every two hours throughout the day.
Because deterioration of cognitive skills is a symptom of heat stroke, Amanda Fields, the 23-year-old Spanish translator working with the study, tests workers' memories.
Fields recites a series of numbers to the men and asks them to repeat them both backward and forward. She said many pass in the early morning, but as the heat continues to rise, the test gets harder for the workers.
"These men don't want to stop because hours are money," Fields said. "It is distressing to see somebody that is overexerting themselves for those reasons."
Roberto Pascual, 28, works as a ceramicist in Mexico, making plates, cups and bowls. Pascual and others are able to come to the United States on the temporary H-2A visa.
He became involved in the H-2A program five years ago, but this is his first year participating in the heat stress study.
Researchers said he and others enjoy the breaks the study gives them throughout the day. They are compensated with $10 for the hour researchers estimate the tests take away from their work. The money is almost as much as many workers would make daily in Mexico.
As Pascual quickly drank water during one of the assessments last week, he said working in cucumber fields was some of the hardest, hottest work anyone can be faced with on the farm.
Dr. Carol Maxwell, a research associate with the study, said working with cucumbers is hard because many of the workers are forced to stoop low to the ground, which tests have shown is nearly five degrees hotter than if they were standing.
With the study, researchers are able to look at environmental factors and how they affect each assessment. Heat sensors are placed in different areas throughout the field. The sensors not only measure the temperature but the humidity and the ultraviolet light in that location.
"We know now through our experience that there is great variability in temperature in the field versus what the Weather Service may report that day at the airport," Sabella said.
Sabella said many factors affect temperature readings. Researchers have noticed that the type of crops, the type of soil in the field and even whether the field has a tree line or pond near it affect the temperature in a particular location.
Robert Garrow monitors heat data for the study. He said he has recorded higher temperatures where buildings block air flow.
Garrow said people in temperatures that reach the 90s should lower their work level. Temperatures that rise above the 90s are what Garrow called a warning zone, when it is suggested that workers get out of the heat.
Garrow said heat sensor readings taken in the field routinely rise above the warning zone.
"Even when you're supposed to get out, they will still be working," he said.
When researchers are finished collecting data, they hope to determine what hours are the most dangerous to be in the heat, the early symptoms of heat stress, the best hydration methods and how cultural or behavioral patterns affect workers risk for illness.
"We have huge databases that are generating tremendous amounts of data," Sabella said. "What we do is then analyze it for specific questions looking for trends, looking for things that will help to tell us what's going on."
In December, researchers said they hope to begin presenting the trends they saw after analyzing their data.
"We can't really say anything until we have some scientific validation to say it," Sabella said. "Once we do, the anticipation is that we will then produce extension-type material for the growers themselves so they can start to recognize symptoms before they get serious. Maybe, perhaps what to do if you see these symptoms and how to handle them."
Researchers hope to create material that can be hung in the migrant workers' residences, in barns and presented at speeches both nationally and internationally.
"This is hopefully just the beginning," Sabella said. "We expect more to come from this."
Democrats in runoff for top education job
Aug. 11, 2004
Winston-Salem Journal
By David Ingram
© Copyright 2004
August may be a time for short political attention spans. Luckily, most voters will only have one or two boxes to check in next week's runoff elections.
Voters in the 5th and 10th Congressional Districts will make choices in those races, and there are runoffs for some local offices, but the only statewide primary left undecided is the Democratic nomination for the state's top schools job, the superintendent for public instruction.
Two educators are competing for that nomination - June Atkinson, a former high-school teacher and longtime state education official, and Marshall Stewart, also a former high-school teacher and a professor at N.C. State University. The winner of the primary will face Bill Fletcher, a Republican and member of the Wake County school board, in November.
Under state law, the state superintendent has little power to make policy. That's left up to the governor, the General Assembly and the State Board of Education.
But, as the chief executive of the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, the superintendent gets to decide how to implement some policies and often acts as one of the state's leading voices on education.
Though they largely agree on the issues, Atkinson and Stewart have followed different paths to their candidacies and offer different visions for the job. They described those visions at a forum with department employees yesterday.
Atkinson retired in May as the department's director of instructional services in order to run for superintendent. She has also held various other positions in the department, and earlier taught high school in Virginia and North Carolina.
She said that her experience in Raleigh would ensure continuity, and she likened her candidacy to companies that hire from within.
"They promote people who understand the enterprise. They promote people who know what it takes," Atkinson said. "I am one of those people."
Stewart worked as a bus driver and a teacher at a Sampson County high school. Later, he worked for a national organization that supports agriculture education and he served as the state coordinator for agriculture education.
He said he was influenced by his experience growing up in rural school systems in Bladen, Pitt and Sampson counties. "When people talk about low-wealth schools, I know it because I grew up in it," Stewart said.
Both Democrats have said that they would fight for more money for positions at the department, where many employees say that they are overworked by state and federal requirements. Atkinson and Stewart both said that they will keep open the lines of communication with the governor's office and the General Assembly, and that they will fight for more money for poor school districts.
Whoever wins the primary, Fletcher said he looks forward to running a positive campaign based on the issues. He owns an advertising company, Fletcher & Associates, and said he would approach the superintendent's job with much the same philosophy. "I've had to satisfy a customer, meet a payroll and be invited back for the next meeting," he said.
Feds: Durham out of step on disabilities law
Aug. 11, 2004
Durham Herald-Sun
By BEN EVANS
© Copyright 2004
DURHAM -- Following through on an investigation launched last year, the U.S. Department of Justice has given the city of Durham a nearly 100-page laundry list of needed improvements for complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The lengthy report, which calls for many of the repairs to be made within a year, includes seemingly low-cost items such as lowering paper towel dispensers in bathrooms but also expensive jobs such as adding wheelchair ramps to sidewalks, leveling out too-steep ramps outside some buildings, and lowering bathroom sinks. Some of the problems the report cites are in buildings that were built in just the past few years.
City officials, who in the past have denied being in violation of the law, said they hadn't yet put a price tag on the jobs but hoped to work cooperatively with the federal agency, which could sue the city if the parties can't reach an agreement.
"We're asking [the Justice Department] for some time to do some evaluation to find out what the cost is," Assistant City Manager Ted Voorhees said. "We don't want to commit to a dollar figure without some real evaluation of what the alternatives might be."
Barbara Aaron, who sparked the investigation when she filed a complaint with the Justice Department in 2002, said she hoped the findings would raise awareness about the issue. Aaron, who serves on a city committee on disabilities and has a 13-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy, first became involved with city accessibility when her daughter, who uses a wheelchair, enrolled in a city summer camp and couldn't use many facilities. Aaron said she repeatedly tried to get the city to address fixable problems but was ignored.
"It's not a priority to them," she said. "I don't really want to say that it's ignorance. I think it's a lack of understanding and a lack of ability to want to understand."
The Justice Department frequently investigates local governments for compliance with the ADA, assessing whether jurisdictions are discriminating by denying people access to buildings or services. Durham was one of 15 cities chosen for review last year, officials said.
Federal officials surveyed all of the city's 50-plus properties, from parking lots to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. They found consistent problems involving the size and location of doorways, bathroom stalls, toilet paper dispensers, toilet stall grab bars, wheelchair ramps, parking and signs.
While the ADA allows some flexibility in older buildings, many of the Durham findings involve facilities that were built only recently, more than a decade after the federal law was implemented. For example, the city's General Services Department, which opened in 2001, was cited for multiple findings, including countertops and bathroom sinks that were too high for wheelchair users. Experts in the field emphasize that it's much less expensive to build facilities correctly instead of returning later to repair them.
City officials had few answers Tuesday for why recently constructed facilities weren't ADA compliant. Voorhees said he wasn't sure whether the city might consult with the architects or engineers who were involved. That could be difficult, he said, because ADA standards were sometimes unclear or were in flux.
"That's crap," Aaron responded, arguing that the city simply ignored the regulations. "You can't get any clearer. If you can read ... you can understand what it says. It tells you the heights your counter has to be."
Laurie Ringaert, director of the Center for Universal Design at N.C. State University, agreed.
"I think things are clear," Ringaert said. "It's just like, 'Is the fire code clear?' Well, if you're an expert on the fire code, it is."
Ringaert, who has researched and advocated for disability access for more than 20 years, pointed to a lack of ADA awareness among builders and architects as the source of the problem.
"They're not doing these things on purpose. They just don't have the training to understand why these things are necessary," she said. "I think what we need to be doing is pushing for more education."
The ADA was passed in 1990. Title II of the act -- the subject of the investigation -- requires state and local governments to provide equal access to all of their services, programs and activities, with some exceptions.
Access can be provided either by structural modifications to buildings or, in some cases, by rearranging how a program is offered. For example, a library without an elevator to its second floor could provide access by having staff members get books for people in wheelchairs.
In recent years, the Justice Department has reached settlements with a number of local governments. After an investigation of city facilities in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., for example, the city agreed to make modifications similar to those recommended in the Durham report.
City staff recently completed a building maintenance survey that found $60 million to $70 million in pent-up repair needs, but that report didn't look at ADA issues. Voorhees said the city would look at the ADA review "department by department, building by building" and develop a response.
"I fully expect we'll be able to reach agreement," Voorhees said.
The Justice Department report also calls for the city to provide more services for the hearing-impaired, and requests that the city improve its Web site so that visually impaired residents, for example, can better use it with special software.
Charles Harvey, the Justice Department official handling the review, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
BASF Professional Pest Control teams up with Hurricanes
Aug. 10, 2004
Triangle Business Journal; Business Wire
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
Research Triangle Park-based BASF Professional Pest Control announced Tuesday that it will promote its Termidor Termite Protection product at Carolina Hurricanes hockey games, North Carolina State University basketball games and other events at the RBC Center in Raleigh.
The multi-year agreement, financial terms of which were not released, includes broadcast and arena advertising for the Termidor product.
BASF previously had sponsorship deals with NCSU, the Durham Bulls baseball club and the National Hockey League champion Tampa Bay Lightning. This is BASF's first sponsorship agreement with the NHL's Hurricanes.
Aug. 10, 2004
Associated Press; NBC-17; Winston Salem Journal; WCNC; Charlotte Observer; Wilmington Morning Star; News & Observer; Bizjournals.com; WRAL; Raleigh Triangle Business Journal; News 14 Carolina; Durham Herald-Sun; WTVD-11; WVEC, VA
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A Durham firm announced plans Tuesday to add 300 new jobs in the Triangle, taking advantage of $5.1 million in tax incentives North Carolina offered to help keep the expansion here.
Cree Inc., which makes LED chip products used in cell phones, vehicle dashboards and various indoor-outdoor displays, will begin expanding its semiconductor production this fall at an undetermined site near or at Research Triangle Park, the company said. Cree now operates just outside the 7,000-acre RTP.
The jobs, which will include manufacturing and research and development, will pay on average $50,000 a year plus benefits, said Gov. Mike Easley, who announced the decision with Cree officials during a news conference.
Easley and representatives from Cree said the new jobs would go to North Carolinians.
The governor said the state's strong public schools, skilled work force and business-friendly climate helped secure the deal, which he said will pump about $300 million into the area economy.
"These are high-tech, knowledge, talent, skilled jobs, those that we are actively recruiting into North Carolina now. It's part of our strategy," Easley said.
Cree officials said they considered locating in Virginia and outside the United States.
A commission led by two former governors earlier this year unveiled a five-year, $650 million plan to help generate an additional 100,000 biotech jobs in North Carolina in the next 20 years. The goal is to transform the state economy that since 2001 has lost around 140,000 jobs, many in textiles, furniture, tobacco and other manufacturing industries
Part of the state's recruiting arsenal includes the Job Development Investment Grant program, which returns a portion of personal income tax withholdings to companies that create new jobs.
Cree, the 16th recipient of the grant started in 2002, could reap up to $5.1 million in tax benefits if it creates the jobs called for under the agreement and sustains them for 11 years, Easley officials said.
Chuck Swoboda, president and chief executive officer of Cree, said the expansion would help the company meet the demand for its LED chip and new power devices.
The deal also will generate about $1.7 million to the state's Industrial Development Fund for infrastructure improvements in rural North Carolina. That requirement occurs when JDIG recipients are located in an urban county, which is typical under the program.
The General Assembly this year expanded the JDIG program from $10 million to $15 million annually while extending it for a year and increasing the maximum number of projects from 15 to 25. The program has helped create more than 6,000 jobs and more than $900 million in investment in the state, according to the governor's office.
Cree officials said they considered locating in Virginia and outside the United States.
JDIG applications contain a clause asking businesses to pledge that they would not have expanded in the state unless they had gotten the grant. State officials have said they have no way to verify such a claim, and rely on consultants, the companies and other criteria to determine whether an applicant should receive the grant.
Cree began operations in 1987 when a group of students from North Carolina State University licensed patents of 10 silicon carbide-related products. Cree became the first U.S. company to produce blue and green light-emitting diodes known as LEDs when the industry could produce only red and yellow LEDs, according to the company.
Cree employs 964 regular full-time workers at its Durham site. The company also has operations in California totaling about 120 employees as well as sales offices in Japan and Hong Kong.
The company ended its 2004 fiscal year in June with reported revenues of $307 million, a 34 percent increase over fiscal 2003, the company reported.
UNC employees to get $1,000 raise
Aug. 10, 2004
Associated Press; News 14 Carolina; WRAL-TV; Winston-Salem Journal
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
(CHAPEL HILL) - Public university professors and some other UNC workers will get raises of at least $1,000 this year under a plan approved by administrators.
A committee of the University of North Carolina system authorized the raise on Monday under pressure from lawmakers.
The recently approved state budget stipulated that all university faculty members earn at least $1,000 raise this year. The move comes after several years with small, one-time bonuses.
Gretchen Bataille, the university system's senior vice president for academic affairs, says the system has never before given an across-the-board raise to its employees. The system prefers to give raises based on merit, equity or market pressures.
Letter to the editor: Raleigh's opportunity
Aug. 11, 2004
News & Observer
© Copyright 2004
Thanks for devoting so much coverage of late to the Dix Hill dilemma. It is clear to me that the property should become a city park or state government's first urban park.
I do not wish to see N.C. State University expand onto that land; the university has already been given enough prime real estate. And I don't think the state should entertain any ideas of that site as a work center for state employees.
Dix Hill should be developed only as a park. A master plan for an urban park should be created that would include open space, a botanical garden with plant conservatory, walking and biking trails, an outdoor theater and perhaps even a new home for Theatre in the Park. The park should include a major water feature, such as a reflecting pool where children could wade and sail miniature boats. Sports facilities for tennis and softball should be part of the plan.
The Dix property's trademark lawns that frame downtown's skyline should be kept intact, and no trees should be removed unnecessarily. The plan should also include the amphitheater that has been proposed for downtown. The outdoor performance site envisioned now is inappropriate and uninviting.
There are scores of houses and other structures that should be moved off the Dix property or clustered into a neighborhood setting on the edge of the park. All institutional buildings should be demolished unless found suitable for use for institutions that are appropriate for a park.
The development community is salivating about the prospect of getting its hands on that property, but that idea needs to be nipped in the bud. Raleigh's downtown is grossly underdeveloped, and we don't need any more office parks further decentralizing this city. I do think, however, that townhouses and condominiums from low-income to luxury should rim the park and have it at their front doors.
Lee Hansley
Raleigh
Aug. 11, 2004
The Durham Herald-Sun
By PAUL BONNER
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH -- Cree Inc. has picked North Carolina for an expansion that will create 300 new jobs and a $300 million capital investment, the Durham semiconductor manufacturer and state officials announced Tuesday.
In garnering state incentives that could total about $20 million, Cree said it chose the Tar Heel State over Virginia and Asia as possible sites for its growth.
But in language that surprised Durham County officials, the company gave the location of the expansion only as the Triangle, saying it could be in Durham or Wake counties.
Officials in Durham County government and the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce said they had been told by state officials that there was no other site under consideration besides Cree's campus off Chin Page Road, for which the city approved a site plan in December.
Company officials didn't resolve the ambiguity, saying only that they are still deciding on a site.
"Clearly, one possibility is on our present campus," said Ed Teague, Cree's vice president of business development. "There are other potential properties in the Triangle area," he said, adding that the terms of the incentives limit those sites to Wake and Durham counties. The company will begin hiring this fall, when it will finalize the location and other details, he said.
Cree's 17-year record as a home-grown -- its founders were N.C. State University graduates -- and growing business in a highly competitive, high-tech enterprise often draws praise from Durham officials. For Tom White, president of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, Tuesday provided another occasion.
"To me, it's a reaffirmation of what we have here -- a wonderful locale or venue for high-tech manufacturing," White said. "They also epitomize the town-gown partnership -- tech sophistication with an entrepreneurial spirit."
But he was taken aback that Cree wasn't committing to its Durham location for the expansion.
"They have a lot of capacity on Chin Page Road," he said.
Likewise, Durham County Manager Mike Ruffin said a senior official in the state Department of Commerce told him late last week that he knew of no other site under consideration. Ken Atkins, the executive director of economic development with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday he knew of no communications between Cree and Raleigh or Wake elected officials regarding incentives.
Ruffin also denied earlier reports that Durham County offered incentives to Cree. In April, The Herald-Sun reported that county officials had offered Cree $1.5 million in incentives. In fact, Ruffin said Tuesday, Cree never formally requested incentives from the county. Such a request would have set in motion a fiscal analysis by county staff and discussions and a public hearing by the Board of County Commissioners.
But that assertion, in turn, appeared to conflict with a statement by Commissioner Becky Heron -- confirmed by Teague -- that Cree withdrew a county incentives request on Monday.
Meanwhile, Teague said Cree's state incentives could total about $20 million.
Gov. Mike Easley announced a Job Development Investment Grant for Cree worth up to $5.1 million at a press conference in Raleigh. The state Economic Investment Committee approved the award Thursday.
Cree officials said the 300 new positions would include both research and manufacturing workers, with an average wage of $50,000 a year. The company now employs 964 at its Durham site and another 120 in California and sales offices in Japan and Hong Kong.
Cree needs to expand capacity across its product line, Teague said, including its new XLamp and other light-emitting diodes, other chips and the semiconductor wafers it sells to other chipmakers. In a conference call with investors late last month, company CEO Chuck Swoboda said Cree is doubling its chip production capacity and anticipates increasing its capital expenditures by $100 million to $120 million in the fiscal year that began July 1. The company also reported record revenue and profit for the quarter and fiscal year ending June 27.
Swoboda, who was traveling Tuesday and unavailable for comment, said in a release that the JDIG grant was instrumental in the company's decision to expand in North Carolina, as was semiconductor manufacturers' inclusion this year in an exemption of sales taxes on construction materials and permanently installed equipment.
When it was first passed, the law applied only to pharmaceutical companies -- notably Merck & Co. Soon after the law passed in December, the New Jersey-based maker of drugs and vaccines committed to build a new $300 million vaccine manufacturing plant in northern Durham County. Merck, which plans to hire at least 200 new employees, received a total incentive package of up to $39.6 million. The sales tax exemption now also covers auto and aircraft manufacturers.
Heron said she is concerned about the potential loss to county revenues from Cree's sales tax exemption. Ruffin said the county's share of sales tax exempted could come to $1.65 million.
Besides JDIG, other state incentives for Cree include about $500,000 for community-college worker training and tax credits for research and development, capital investment and hiring under the William S. Lee Act. Last year, Cree generated $1.6 million in Lee credits, mostly for its $15.8 million investment in machinery and equipment and $10.5 million in R&D expenses, according to the Department of Revenue. The company also received a $27,500 Lee credit for creating 55 jobs.
The Economic Investment Committee said the expansion should add about $900 million cumulatively to the state's gross product, besides a net tax benefit to the state of about $17 million.
At $300 million, Cree's investment represents one of the largest among the 16 for which the state has approved JDIG grants in the program's 15 months, said Commerce Department officials. Also, most other grants have been for businesses to establish new locations in the state, rather than to expand existing ones, department spokeswoman Reid Hartzoge said.
The actual JDIG amount for Cree is 65 percent of state income tax withholding for employees in newly created jobs. The grant is paid over 11 years, based on how many jobs the company creates in the next five years. As a condition of receiving a JDIG grant in an urban area, Cree must also pay an estimated $1.7 million into a state fund for infrastructure improvements in rural counties.
Aug. 11, 2004
News & Observer
By CHIP ALEXANDER AND LORENZO PEREZ, Staff Writers
© Copyright 2004
While N.C. State football coaches are impressed by freshman tailback Bobby Washington's performances in practice, Washington's mother still fumes about his abrupt exit from the University of Miami.
Leslie Washington said the family was considering legal action against Miami, which she said refused last week to admit the highly touted recruit from Miami's Killian High. The university, she said, questioned Washington's score on the ACT college entrance exam, saying an allegation about his test had been made from an outside source.
Although she wouldn't specify the allegation, Bobby Washington told the Miami Herald last week that the university said the accusation involved somebody taking the test for him -- which he denied.
"Bobby did not cheat on anything," Leslie Washington said Tuesday in an interview. "He's a good child, and someone will have to answer for this because his reputation has been tarnished. My child has been slandered, and he did nothing wrong."
Washington said the family first learned of the allegation July 30 in a call from a university official. She said a meeting was scheduled at the university for Aug. 2 with Tony Hernandez, director of compliance for the athletics department, and Rick Mert, director of football operations.
"At the meeting, they said someone made a call to the school and made this accusation," she said. "They said they needed more time to investigate it. They said they would not admit him.
"I said that was not fair, that they could not put my child's life on hold with an accusation. Bobby said, 'No, I'm not going to wait because someone lied about me; just release me now.' I said whatever Bobby wants, I want, too."
Leslie Washington said she believed Miami had "over-recruited" and did not have a scholarship available for her son, saying that "they wanted him to sit for a year."
But Miami spokesman Mark Pray said Tuesday that "there was no scholarship limit issue involved." The university would have no other comment on the matter, Pray said.
Cleared to play
Bobby Washington, given a release from his scholarship, flew to Raleigh on Wednesday, Aug. 4. He was admitted to NCSU and participated in the Wolfpack's first practice on Friday.
"He was cleared by the NCAA [Clearinghouse]," Leslie Washington said. "If the NCAA had doubts about him, he wouldn't be playing at N.C. State."
She said NCSU had to get academic "paperwork" from a private school in Miami that Bobby Washington attended as a high school freshman before transferring to Killian. A committee of faculty and academic administrators at NCSU reviewed Washington's academic records before he was admitted.
NCSU athletics director Lee Fowler said that privacy laws prohibited him from discussing an athlete's academic records. Jon Fagg, assistant athletics director for compliance, declined to comment specifically on Washington's enrollment.
"We have a very set process by which we monitor the academic progress of incoming student-athletes," Fagg said. "We review before anyone comes to school that they are an NCAA qualifier."
No irregularity
Leslie Washington said she was told Miami first learned of the ACT allegation on July 14. "Why they waited to tell us is something we still want to know," she said.
Washington said her son, who is classified as learning disabled, scored 750 on the SAT exam, then later scored 24 on the ACT. Under the NCAA's sliding scale for initial eligibility -- a combination of the standardized test score and grade-point average in core subjects -- Washington was a qualifier.
"The first test [SAT] was timed," she said. "For an L.D. student, I thought that was pretty good. But we looked into the ACT and found Bobby was eligible for a reader and would not be timed on the test. The person giving the [ACT] test could read the question up to 10 times.
"Bobby took the test at [Killian High], with one of the school counselors present. He presented an ID. He never left the room. So what was there to investigate? People may say, 'Oh, it jumped so much,' but there's a big difference in the testing."
Leslie Washington said she was told that at the Aug. 2 meeting at the university, a speaker phone would be provided and that someone from the ACT testing service would be available to answer questions about the score.
Washington said Miami officials told them, "'We're questioning the ACT, but if they call and say everything is OK, we'll accept him.' But no one was at the meeting but Hernandez and Merk. There was no speaker phone. Nothing was set up."
Washington said the family contacted an official at the ACT testing service, who said there was no irregularity with the exam.
"Bobby told them about the accusation and was told, 'Your test score stands,' " Leslie Washington said. "He was told, 'We do not have a problem, the problem lies with the University of Miami.' "
ACT director of media relations Ken Gullette declined to comment Tuesday on Washington's score.
Top-five talent
Bobby Washington, whom N.C. State has not made available to the media, generally was rated among the nation's five best running backs last year by recruiting services. Leslie Washington said she and Washington's father favored N.C. State during the recruiting process but that Bobby had been a lifelong Hurricanes fan and wanted to play at Miami.
"His father and I thought it would be best for Bobby to go away to school," she said.
Bobby Washington selected NCSU even though the Pack has a stable of tailbacks including junior T.A. McLendon and touted freshman Darrell Blackman.
"The great ones aren't worried about who's on the depth chart," said NCSU assistant coach Curt Cignetti, the Pack's recruiting coordinator. "We've got great contacts in south Florida. We've got a lot of kids from south Florida, and the [recruits] know that. And we got lucky."
Staff writer Chip Alexander can be reached at 829-8945 or chipa@newsobserver.com
Aug. 11, 2004
The Charlotte Observer
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
Conventional wisdom says there's not much reason to turn out for next Tuesday's primary runoff election. It's late summer, folks are on vacation and just one statewide contest is on the ballot. But voters in the Democratic runoff have an excellent choice of candidates for an important job. June Atkinson and Marshall Stewart, both former teachers with doctoral degrees, meet in the Democratic runoff for state superintendent of public instruction. Each would bring useful skills to the job. The winner will face Republican nominee Bill Fletcher this fall.
Responsibility for this state's public schools is shared among: the General Assembly, which makes the laws and appropriates school money; the superintendent of public instruction, who helps set the education agenda and runs the education department; the state board of education, which makes policy; and the governor, who traditionally takes a strong role in pushing for better schools.
Marshall Stewart is a product of N.C. public schools who drove a school bus during high school. He earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from N.C. State University, taught in Sampson County schools and managed a number of programs offered by the National FFA (once known as Future Farmers of America), including leadership programs and recruitment and retention programs. He was executive director of the National Association of Agricultural Education and worked with the state's 380 agriculture teachers as education coordinator. He has been involved with a number of educational nonprofit organizations, co-written two textbooks on leadership and brings a combination of energy, experience and passion for the rural areas of the state to this race. He plans to emphasize student achievement, better teaching and leadership.
June Atkinson was reared in Virginia, where she earned a bachelor's degree at Radford and a master's degree at Virginia Tech. Her doctorate is from N.C. State. She taught in Roanoke before moving to North Carolina to teach business at Charlotte's Myers Park High. She taught in the classroom and later worked for the Department of Public Instruction for more than three decades, retiring last spring as director of the division of instructional services so she could run for this job. She has worked with teachers in every education district, she says, and has written two textbooks about computer technology. She is a past president of the National Business Education Association and worked with a number of nonprofit organizations to improve schools. She wants to bring the kind of improvement to high schools that elementary and middle schools have enjoyed, and free teachers to concentrate on their students.
Both Marshall Stewart and June Atkinson have good ideas about improving teaching quality and providing funding for low-wealth schools where students are not performing at grade level. Because of her richly varied experience in the classroom and the department of public instruction, the Observer's editorial board recommends June Atkinson for the Democratic nomination for superintendent of public instruction.
As midnight strikes, more Americans head to work
Aug. 11, 2004
Christian Science Monitor
By Patrik Jonsson
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. – The sun sets. Chris Brown rises.
When the rest of the working world is packing it in for the night, Mr. Brown, a tall 19-year-old with a wisp of a beard, sucks down some "protein junk food" and chases the salty morsels with water. The night is his oyster, from behind the counter at a 24-hour BP gas station in Raleigh's university district. For him, the night shift means freedom not only from poverty, but from garrulous coworkers and stressed-out bosses.
But in the six months since Mr. Brown started here, the job has also taken a personal toll: Sleepless, he dropped out of North Carolina State and is now taking civil engineering classes at Wake Technical School, a capable but less prestigious institution. "I figured it wasn't worth $12,000 a year [of tuition at N.C. State] to be sleeping through the classes," he says.
Roused by the clamor of a 24-7 globe, the American workforce is increasingly seizing the wee hours - a groggy but growing graveyard shift where Brown and others toil in an alternate universe on the far side of midnight.
Once the haunt of cops and bakers, the night shift is now the fastest growing, according to the census: One in five Americans now goes to work between midnight and 6:30 a.m. To be sure, that includes day workers who rise before roosters. But another study, from Shiftwork Solutions in San Rafael, Calif., shows that one in four American workers now work outside the traditional Monday-through-Friday day shift, up significantly from ten years ago. And just as many prefer those "nontraditional" shifts, says Jim Dillingham, a consultant with Shiftworks Solutions.
For one thing, the increasing availability of "flex time" has given more people the option to head to work early, skip heinous commutes, and get home in time to pick up children from school - and thus cut day-care costs and spend more time with families, or simply with themselves.
A lot of those working the night shift are white-collar workers. Among the 24 million Americans who toil outside the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., half are in white-collar jobs, including healthcare, technology, customer service, retail, and media, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And that number is expected to grow as more corporations and institutions move to round-the-clock operations.
The service industries tag on the heels of those white-collar workers, experts say, from IT workers to those serving coffee at half-past 2 and doughnuts at 3 a.m.
Though research on productivity gains is inconclusive, many employees say they accomplish more without the distractions of co-workers and sunlight. But whatever the reasons, the trend is clear: The night shift is the fastest growing frontier for the American workforce.
Not all of it, of course, is by choice. A globalized economy needs constant attention, so more white-collar professionals clock in at night to check the Tokyo Stock Exchange or take customer calls from New Zealand.
"[Night shifts] are really ... growing with the needs of a sleepless world," says Brian O'Neill, communications director at Circadian Technologies, a 24-7 consulting firm in Lexington, Mass. "The problem is that the world is changing too fast for the human body to adapt."
There are other drawbacks to night work, too. For companies, the addition of nocturnal employees can be costly. "Workers burn out, turnover goes up, morale goes down, and so does productivity," says Mr. O'Neill. The late shifts can cost companies more - up to $8,600 extra annually, per person, than day workers, and with an accident rate up to 20 percent higher.
And for the workers themselves, consequences range from foreign sleep patterns, to a higher risk of accidents, to declining health and, most poignantly, frayed relationships with those who spend their nights hugging a pillow alone.
Donna Pearce, a brassy night-shifter in a Harris Teeter grocery store in Raleigh, has seen the impact firsthand. "It can mess up a marriage right quick," she says, eating a "lunch" of canned hot dogs at 1:43 a.m.
Her colleague William Hall struggles to find time for his family. But on Saturday morning, after his shift, he took his two kids to see "Scooby Doo" and "Spider Man" - all before crashing at 2:30 p.m. "We're all having to adapt to a 24-7 world," he says.
Working at night can hit parents and children especially hard. "The future of the night-shift growth is disproportionately in the service sector, and these are often the kinds of jobs that women going from welfare to work are moving into. The question is, what happens to their children?" asks Harriet Presser, a sociologist at the University of Maryland-College Park and author of Working in a 24/7 Economy: Challenges for American families. "It's a silent issue," she says.
Still, more and more companies are making sure that if the day shift gets a party, so does the night shift, and a growing cadre of consultants are on hand to give advice about how to eat correctly at night (light snacks are best) and how to get a good day's sleep.
Despite a litany of complaints, from bosses' lack of attention to sleepless days, many find solace, even happiness, working under the stars. There are lots of things to like, says Mr. Hall, including not having a boss always breathing down your neck.
Coworker Barbara Keyes says it fits her schedule: Her oldest daughter watches the young one, and she can spend days with them or volunteer, as she does with the PTA.
Manoon Nayyaz, an immigrant from Pakistan who works with Hall and Ms. Keyes, often puts in two shifts a day, one of them at night. Taking a break on the stoop of the silent store, he says he likes the solitude. "If we didn't find ways to enjoy it, you couldn't call it a life," he philosophizes to a chorus of crickets.
Back at the BP, in the middle of the long stretch between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m., Brown finds another bonus: Weird stuff happens in the wee hours. There's a steady stream of red-eyed club-hoppers, and a man recently chased his girlfriend around the pumps with a hatchet (she escaped). Still, he's feeling the biological effects of a nocturnal life: "I'm totally sleep-deprived."
And it can only last so long. Six more months and he wants to move to the dayshift - and salvage his academic career.
Just then, the bell tinkles on the door and in walks Chris Dedousis, an N.C. State freshman who picks up a job application. "I'm up anyway, so I'll work the graveyard shift," he says. "Trust me, I need the cash."
Scientists seek better way to measure rain
Aug. 10, 2004
Associated Press; Globe and Mail; Globetechnology.com, Canada
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Meteorologists at North Carolina State University are working on a way to more accurately measure rainfall in small areas.
They're developing software programs that use radar readings in combination with measurements taken from ground gauges to more accurately estimate where it rained and how much rain fell.
Rainfall can vary greatly over short distances, so the new measuring tool will provide a better understanding of how wet or dry an area is. Filling in these information gaps will make water-management decisions easier should drought threaten.
The reliance on only a handful of well-monitored gauges for the region's rainfall history makes it difficult to see patterns, said Ryan Boyles, an associate state climatologist at the State Climate office at N.C. State.
"If it doesn't fall on the airport, it's like it didn't fall," Mr. Boyles said.
Mr. Boyles and student assistants are still working out problems with the software, but he expects it to be available to the public through the state climate office's website some time this fall.
Radar systems have long been used to detect approaching storms, but these projections aren't always accurate, Mr. Boyles said.
The estimates become much more reliable when the calculations are adjusted to include rainfall totals recorded at collection stations.
Instead of relying on spots 30 miles apart to paint the region's weather portrait, the program will make it possible to determine within a two-and-a-half-mile square area.
The program should help meteorologists answer questions about local weather patterns, Mr. Boyles said.
"Does the flow of rivers like the Yadkin affect weather patterns? Can the moisture present in large bodies of water or even smaller lakes cause storms to develop? These are the types of questions we hope to answer," Mr. Boyles said. "How do we then use that information to improve forecasting models? That's the ultimate goal."
Video gaming technology branching out, getting serious
Aug. 11, 2004
Associated Press; Winston Salem Journal; WCNC; Wilmington Morning Star; Charlotte Observer; Akron Beacon Journal, OH; Biloxi Sun Herald, MS; Bradenton Herald, FL; Centre Daily Times, PA; Duluth News Tribune, MN; Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN; Fort Wayne News Sentinel, IN; Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX; Grand Forks Herald, ND; Kansas City Star, MO; Kansas.com, KS; Kentucky.com, KY; Lakeland Ledger, FL; Miami Herald; Monterey County Herald, CA; Myrtle Beach Sun News, SC; Ocala Star-Banner, FL; Philadelphia Inquirer; San Luis Obispo Tribune, CA; The State, SC; Tallahassee.com, FL; Tallahassee Democrat, FL; Times Daily, AL; Worcester Telegram, MA; WVEC, VA
By EMERY P. DALESIO
© Copyright 2004
CARY, N.C. - On a flat-panel computer screen the size of some televisions, video game producers populate an unnamed Islamic land where Special Forces troops have dropped in and are being challenged to learn their way around.
The room in a nondescript office park in North Carolina's technology hub is full of ex-soldiers and former commercial video game developers who have redeployed to the U.S. Army's effort to design video games that train soldiers for their life-and-death missions.
"This is a little bit different from the game industry, where most of the time I could fake it, kind of like a movie," said James Cowgill, the lead designer for the America's Army Government Applications Group. "When you see a tank or gunfire in a movie, most people have never fired the real thing and don't realize it's nowhere near feeling real. The people who use our products on the government side, they know what's real."
The Cary team is building on technology developed and lessons learned from the Army's own video game, called "America's Army."
Designed as a recruiting tool that would appeal to youngsters raised on XBoxes and PlayStations, the two-year-old online game has attracted more than 3 million registered users. Players assume the role of a new recruit learning Army life and working his - or her - way up to online battles against terrorists.
Now, the Army wants to use the same tools to develop videos that can trim the U.S. military's $8.5 billion training budget. Elsewhere, video wizards believe the same skills at work in Cary can be used to stake a claim in the enormous market for corporate employee development.
Training Magazine estimates U.S. companies will spend $51 billion this year on employee development. In a survey published last October, the magazine found that companies are eager to shift from classroom-based training - which currently eats up about two-thirds of training budgets - to interactive education, or "e-learning."
Twenty years after video flight simulators first introduced most gamers to the idea that video games could be used to learn real skills, advances in computer graphics and the ready availability of broadband lines have spurred interest in a new generation of "serious" video games.
Advocates say training with games works because - as generations of video game players can attest - it's fun and engaging to be plopped into a virtual world. That creates the desire to repeat the experience, and the student returns to train again and again.
In America's Army, players are drawn in by vivid details. In a firefight, bullets whiz and crack behind a player's ear, slam into a wall and split off concrete and glass fragments. Shell casings clink into a wooden door frame and ring off the concrete floor.
"What we're best suited for is creating a virtual sandbox where people and equipment can move, communicate and act in their environment very realistically," said Chris Chambers, the deputy director of the Army's efforts to develop training games. "This is about getting real humans in this virtual sandbox."
The Army built this studio just outside Raleigh for its proximity to talent produced by Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It also is close to Epic Games, the company which provides the game engine for America's Army, said the executive producer for the Goverment Applications Team, Jerry Heneghan, who is a West Point graduate and former Apache helicopter pilot.
The team is now working on an interactive program to help Green Berets practice negotiating alliances with indigenous fighting forces, as they did with Afghan warlords during the 2001 campaign to overthrown the Taliban. The game will allow Special Forces soldiers to practice dealing with merchants and militiamen in marketplaces crowded with cafes and donkey carts.
Rehearsing such scenarios on the computer allows soldiers to learn from their mistakes. Where real-life errors can be fatal, a soldier who messes up in a video game can simply replay the game.
Virtual training also allows soldiers or surgeons to repeat their training over and over. The lessons can be monitored and graded.
The Army's Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg declined an request to discuss the potential advantages of video game training over interpersonal role-playing games.
"We are always looking for ways to improve training and do it in the most cost-effective way possible. The negotiation simulation software is one of many initiatives we are looking at," said Maj. Kathleen Devine, a spokeswoman for the school where Green Berets are trained.
Serious games are serious business elsewhere.
The Institute for Creative Technologies in Marina Del Rey, Calif., has been working with the CIA on a role-playing computer simulation to train analysts on how to think like terror cell leaders, cell members and operatives. The institute was formed by the Army five years ago to connect Los Angeles-area academics with the local entertainment and video game industries.
At Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the Entertainment Technology Center has developed a game to prepare police and fire departments for terrorist attacks involving biological or chemical hazards.
And the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is studying how to use video games to teach math, science, engineering and other subjects.
Besides excitement over the range of potential uses, game developers are hoping serious games mean new employment options outside a consolidating entertainment gaming industry, said Ben Sawyer.
Sawyer is organizing an October conference sponsored by the Serious Games Initiative, based at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
"What I work on is not only that this game stuff can help other organizations, but that this can help a very vital industry," said Sawyer, who also heads Digitalmill Inc., a Portland, Me.-based consulting company that produces market research on the games industry.
Study measures heat, health effects of arm work
Aug. 10, 2004
Associated Press; WAVY-TV, VA
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
GREENVILLE, N.C. Researchers expect a four-year study of the effects of intense heat on farmworkers will make hot days in the fields safer.
They're trying to figure out when it's most dangerous to be in the heat, the early symptoms of heat stress, the best ways to stay hydrated and how culture or behavior affects workers' risk for illness.
The North Carolina Agromedicine Institute is running the study. The institute is a joint venture of North Carolina State University, North Carolina A and T State University and East Carolina University.
Researchers working on eight North Carolina farms since 2000 have found that the crop and soil types and whether a field has a tree line or pond near it are among the factors that influence the temperature in the field.