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N.C. State says it has first animals cloned in the state
Jorge Piedrahita, veterinary medicine
Economists
Say Loss of Projects Tied to Lack of Incentives in Durham, N.C.
cites Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics
‘Virtual
research center’ in Tryon could spawn new companies in region
A new, non-profit corporation was recently formed in Tryon which, if successful,
will bring research scientists together from across the southeast – virtually,
through the power of modern communications technologies.
Group
Formed To Promote Attendance At RBC Center
The authority that oversees the RBC Center has formed a task force to stop
the slide in attendance at the arena that is home to the Carolina Hurricanes
and N.C. State men's basketball team.
N.C. doesn't
shell out to get top-tier firms
It often takes major incentives to catch a big fish like Merck & Co.,
officials and economists say.
Tobacco
farmers eyeing 21% cut
Leaf market plunge continues
Vacant
arena seats set minds to fret
Goodmon leads effort to fill them
Former
coach detained
Candler held on immigration issue
Cuba's
tourism leader removed on large-scale corruption charges
Art Padilla, business management
N.C.
State says it has first animals cloned in the state
Jorge Piedrahita, veterinary medicine
Molecules
Make Good Memory
Jonathan Lindsey, chemistry
Queries
Yates Mill
Famed
local writer Tarbell is Oilfield Journal focus
Robert Kochersberger Jr., English
N.C.
State Coach Resigns Over Sex Case
John Candler resigned as North Carolina State's diving coach.
Diving
Coach at North Carolina State U. Resigns After 1966 Misconduct Is Disclosed
John Candler resigned as North Carolina State's diving coach.
Obit:
Ernest William Rollins, Jr.
retired German professor
Economists Say Loss of Projects Tied to Lack of Incentives in Durham, N.C.
Dec. 5, 2003
Herald-Sun; Knight-Ridder
By Anne Krishnan, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Dec. 5--It often takes major incentives to catch a big fish like Merck & Co., officials and economists say.
While Durham's economic developers have been successful at attracting medium to large investments by AW North Carolina, Eisai and EMD Pharmaceuticals, the city, county and state recently have lost out on manufacturing facilities for the so-called "trophy firms" such as Motorola, Eli Lilly and Merck KGaA of Germany.
One reason the local sites have lost those big projects may be that the state hasn't been willing to match the "multi-hundreds of millions of dollars" in incentives offered by other states, said Michael Walden, a regional economist at N.C. State University.
"The really big trophy firms -- the brand names that everybody knows that carry with them prestige -- they often can really work the game," Walden said. "Because states so desperately want them, because they feel like they'd be winning the World Series to say they got company XYZ, states often will put together huge sums of money and North Carolina has generally not been willing to do that."
North Carolina traditionally has relied on other characteristics such as its universities, work force and highway system to attract business, Walden said. But with the state's tobacco, textile and furniture industries in trouble, Tuesday's special session could be a defining moment in the state's incentives policy, he predicted.
"There's certainly a lot of drumbeat from many quarters for the legislature to be much more active in bringing companies to the state, particularly to the more hard-hit parts of the state," he said. "An outcome of Tuesday may be for the General Assembly to be a little more generous in the incentives area."
The governor's $20 million discretionary incentive fund, which is down to $1 million now, "pales in comparison to some of the packages put together over the last decade in the hundreds of millions for single firms," he said.
But John Hood, executive director of the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Raleigh, said studies show that states offering incentives are no better off than states that don't use them. Lowering tax rates and improving infrastructure, such as building a new highway, have been shown to positively impact an economy, he said.
"We are bringing the entire General Assembly to Raleigh in order to essentially try to bribe three particular companies to do what we want," Hood said. "When we play the incentive game, we waste time that could have been put to more productive use."
Still, Linda Wiener, an assistant secretary with N.C. Department of Commerce, said economic incentives are a necessary part of winning economic development projects. Just Wednesday, South Carolina lawmakers were scheduled to consider a $103.5 million incentive package for BMW, she said.
"Everyone would prefer if the situation were different -- if no one used incentives -- but the fact is, in the national and international market, incentives are a fact of life," she said.
North Carolina reportedly put together a $100 million incentive package when it was trying to recruit a $300 million Mercedes-Benz auto plant in 1993. But Alabama lured the automaker and its 1,500 new jobs with an incentive package that North Carolina officials estimated at being worth more than $300 million in land and tax breaks.
Then in 1995, state officials reportedly balked at offering any incentives to Motorola, which was looking for a site for its proposed $1.7 billion semiconductor plant. The manufacturer ended up choosing Richmond, which offered incentives worth $85 million. The company said the site at Treyburn Corporate Park did not meet all of its criteria.
More recently, Germany's Merck KGaA -- a different company than New Jersey-based Merck & Co. -- decided to put its $300 million plant in its home country, where the company was being offered incentives worth $70 to $90 million. North Carolina and Durham's package was $15 to $20 million.
Academic studies have shown that companies place incentives far behind other items such as transportation, market access and the available work force, Walden said. However, economic development officials report that incentives may end up being the deciding factor between two sites that are very similar in other ways, he said.
"I think overall, incentives tend to not be very popular with the citizenry because many citizens look at it as a giveaway to business," Walden said. "But when you talk to economic development officials, they say as a practical matter, in order to stay in the game they often have to offer these incentives."
But Michael Ian Luger, director of the office of economic development at UNC's Kenan-Flagler business school, said incentives may be the easy reason to blame for a location not being chosen. Other areas have simply gotten more competitive over the past 20 years, he said, and many counties would be happy to have had Durham County's success.
"It's human nature to grasp at straws and try to figure out why we lost," he said. "The trouble is that companies that don't come are reluctant to explain why. All you're left with is hypotheticals and suppositions."
Christopher Kirkpatrick contributed to this article.
‘Virtual research center’ in Tryon could spawn new companies in region
Dec. 3, 2003
Tryon Daily Bulletin
By Jeff Byrd, staff writer
© Copyright 2003
A new, non-profit corporation was recently formed in Tryon which, if successful, will bring research scientists together from across the southeast – virtually, through the power of modern communications technologies.
The fruit of the researchers’ collaboration is expected to spawn two or three new companies each year, many of which will locate in this region, perhaps even in Polk County.
Jerry Soder-quist, founder of the Southern Appalachian Science and Technology Center, presented the new organization’s plans to the Polk County Science and Technology Cabinet meeting held at Polk County High School recently. The cabinet was formed by the Polk County Board of Commissioners to help plan for Polk County’s economic future.
Soderquist said the idea for the “virtual research center” came to him over the past couple years. He explained that he has been traveling to all the major research institutions in the region as managing director of Nanotech Capital, LLC, another Tryon corporation.
Nanotech Capital hit a sort of jackpot over a year ago, winning an agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratories to access Oak Ridge’s nanotechnology research discoveries for the purpose of developing new companies. While it is not exclusive, it is the first and only agreement of its kind at Oak Ridge. (See sidebar, page 9, for definition of “nanotechnology.”)
In addition to working with Oak Ridge, Soderquist, along with other principals in Nanotech Capital, has visited with “technology transfer” officers at universities including Clemson, Western Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, N.C. State, USC-Columbia, UT-Knoxville and Virginia Tech, among others, looking everywhere for nanotechnology discoveries that might form the basis for new products.
What they find, Soderquist said, is interesting research, but only in pieces, nothing yet that completes the picture for a new company. Perhaps the missing pieces are available, but only as a bit here and bit there.
The problem is that none of the universities and federal laboratories are sharing information with each other because of the competitive nature of research grant awards.
“In visiting these campuses, we see things that are really neat,” Soderquist said. “But they are not the nucleus of a new company. What is needed is some neutral party to bring all of this together.”
The Southern Appalachian Science and Technology Center (SASTC) is designed to be that neutral party, Soderquist said. SASTC will focus on fostering collaboration between researchers working in three areas: nanotechnology, biotechnology and materials science.
In addition to working with the Oak Ridge and all afore-mentioned universities, SASTC also envisions having corporate members, such as Eastman Kodak Co. All members will pay dues to participate, creating one source of funding for SASTC.
Through the use of carefully written non-disclosure agreements, and by providing technical and monetary assistance as required, Soderquist said he believes SASTC can create the trust necessary to foster collaboration involving the best researchers throughout an eight-state region.
That could be good for economic development in Western North Carolina, and Polk County. Very good.
“Our goal is to assist with the creation of three to five companies per year over the first three years and then up to ten startup companies per year, and to locate them, as much as possible, in the Western North Carolina area,” Soderquist explained in a “white paper” on the project.
Soderquist has presented his “white paper” concept for SASTC to federal, state and Polk County officials, and received nothing but encouragement. He met personally with Sen. John Edwards, U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor and Western Carolina University Chancellor John Bardo.
The N.C. Department of Commerce’s Western North Carolina economic development officers at Advantage West are very excited about the project, Soderquist said, and are working with him to bring it about. In addition, SASTC has a strong board of directors, including Western Carolina University professor of entrepreneurship Frank Lock-wood, the nephew of Sam White of Tryon, and Bob Honee, director of the National Transportation Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
Soderquist holds a bachelor of science degree in architectural engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He received national recognition for his creation of one of the first fully integrated computer Geographic Information Systems (GIS) while working at the City of Lake Forest, Ill.
Also on the SASTC leadership team are Terry Ackerman of Tryon, whose experience includes 35 years of investment banking services for development stage companies, and Ken Rossen of Tryon, an information technology specialist and former chief scientist of MCI Systemhouse.
There are three factors coming together right now that favorably affect the success of the project and fuel his enthusiasm, Soderquist said.
One is the arrival of high capacity, fiber optic networking in Western North Carolina and Polk County (see sidebar, page 8). Another is national legislation just passed to foster new nanotechnology research, and the third is the National Science Foundation’s stated goal to boost research in this region.
The U.S. Congress recently passed a bill, the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, which allocates $3.7 billion over a four-year period starting in 2005, aimed at “accelerating the deployment and application of nanotechology research,” in part by fostering more collaboration between research institutions. The bill is on the president’s desk and he is expected to sign it.
Once it becomes law, the bill provides the money to the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, NASA, the EPA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology for research grants that each agency will administer.
Soderquist is particularly interested in the National Science Foundation, which will receive $385 million in 2005 alone. NSF has a program called EPSCoR – the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research – which aims to put more grant money into competitively disadvantaged states. Four of the eight states targeted by SASTC, those being South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky and West Virginia, are EPSCoR states.
Already the West Virginia Science and Technology Council, and its sister agency in Tennessee, have contacted Soderquist about membership in SASTC.
While it all looks hopeful, Soderquist said there is much that needs to be done. He hopes to apply for a “proof of concept” grant from the National Science Foundation to acquire start-up capital.
“It has such great possibilities,” Soderquist said. “We would like to keep it here, in Polk County.” Polk County is no more than four hours’ drive from the universities in the region, he pointed out, and will soon have first rate Internet bandwidth.
“Eventually, we hope to acquire intellectual property and develop companies,” Soderquist said. “These would be small companies that pay well. We want to do everything we can to preserve the quality of life here in Polk County. But that costs money, so residents here have to be able to make a decent wage without traveling outside the county.
“There is going to be $16 billion in sales over the Internet next year,” Soderquist said. “We could see small companies, with a few employees, hiring local people, paying decent wages, and selling all over the world.”
Roger that.
Group Formed To Promote Attendance At RBC Center
Dec. 5, 2003
Associated Press; WRAL-TV; WCNC, NC; WVEC.com, VA; Wilmington Morning Star; Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL
By reporter name, staff writer
© Copyright 2003
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The authority that oversees the RBC Center has formed a task force to stop the slide in attendance at the arena that is home to the Carolina Hurricanes and N.C. State men's basketball team.
Authority members say they were worried about attendance as well as the number and types of events booked at the arena.
Authority members say targets of the campaign could include events such as the NHL. All-Star game, NCAA basketball tournament play, the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament and music acts.
They also want to increase support for the arena's major tenants. Attendance for both the Hurricanes and the Wolfpack has slipped this season in the four-year-old arena.
The arena cost $167 million and was built mostly with taxpayer money.
N.C. doesn't shell out to get top-tier firms
Dec. 5, 2003
The Durham Herald-Sun
By Anne Krishnan, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Durham Herald Company.
DURHAM -- It often takes major incentives to catch a big fish like Merck & Co., officials and economists say.
While Durham's economic developers have been successful at attracting medium to large investments by AW North Carolina, Eisai and EMD Pharmaceuticals, the city, county and state recently have lost out on manufacturing facilities for the so-called "trophy firms" such as Motorola, Eli Lilly and Merck KGaA of Germany.
One reason the local sites have lost those big projects may be that the state hasn't been willing to match the "multi-hundreds of millions of dollars" in incentives offered by other states, said Michael Walden, a regional economist at N.C. State University.
"The really big trophy firms -- the brand names that everybody knows that carry with them prestige -- they often can really work the game," Walden said. "Because states so desperately want them, because they feel like they'd be winning the World Series to say they got company XYZ, states often will put together huge sums of money, and North Carolina has generally not been willing to do that."
North Carolina traditionally has relied on other characteristics such as its universities, work force and highway system to attract business, Walden said.
But with the state's tobacco, textile and furniture industries in trouble, Tuesday's special session could be a defining moment in the state's incentives policy, he predicted.
"There's certainly a lot of drumbeat from many quarters for the Legislature to be much more active in bringing companies to the state, particularly to the more hard-hit parts of the state," he said. "An outcome of Tuesday may be for the General Assembly to be a little more generous in the incentives area."
The governor's $20 million discretionary incentive fund, which is down to $1 million now, "pales in comparison to some of the packages put together over the last decade in the hundreds of millions for single firms," he said.
But John Hood, executive director of the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Raleigh, said studies show that states offering incentives are no better off than states that don't use them. Lowering tax rates and improving infrastructure, such as building a new highway, have been shown to positively affect an economy, he said.
"We are bringing the entire General Assembly to Raleigh in order to essentially try to bribe three particular companies to do what we want," Hood said. "When we play the incentive game, we waste time that could have been put to more productive use."
Still, Linda Wiener, an assistant secretary with N.C. Department of Commerce, said economic incentives are a necessary part of winning economic development projects. Just Wednesday, South Carolina lawmakers were scheduled to consider a $103.5 million incentive package for BMW, she said.
"Everyone would prefer if the situation were different -- if no one used incentives -- but the fact is, in the national and international market, incentives are a fact of life," she said.
North Carolina reportedly put together a $100 million incentive package when it was trying to recruit a $300 million Mercedes-Benz auto plant in 1993. But Alabama lured the automaker and its 1,500 new jobs with an incentive package that North Carolina officials estimated at being worth more than $300 million in land and tax breaks.
Then, in 1995, state officials reportedly balked at offering any incentives to Motorola, which was looking for a site for its proposed $1.7 billion semiconductor plant. The manufacturer ended up choosing Richmond, Va., which offered incentives worth $85 million. The company said the Durham site at Treyburn Corporate Park did not meet all of its criteria.
More recently, Germany's Merck KGaA -- a different company from New Jersey-based Merck & Co. -- decided to put its $300 million plant in its home country, where the company was being offered incentives worth $70 million to $90 million. North Carolina and Durham's incentives package was only $15 million to $20 million.
Academic studies have shown that companies place incentives far behind other items such as transportation, market access and the available work force, Walden said. However, economic development officials report that incentives may end up being the deciding factor between two sites that are very similar in other ways, he said.
"I think, overall, incentives tend to not be very popular with the citizenry, because many citizens look at it as a giveaway to business," Walden said. "But when you talk to economic development officials, they say as a practical matter, in order to stay in the game, they often have to offer these incentives."
But Michael Ian Luger, director of the office of economic development at UNC's Kenan-Flagler business school, said incentives may be an easy target if a location is not chosen. Other areas have simply gotten more competitive over the past 20 years, he said, and many counties would be happy to have had Durham County's success.
"It's human nature to grasp at straws and try to figure out why we lost," he said. "The trouble is that companies that don't come are reluctant to explain why. All you're left with is hypotheticals and suppositions."
Tobacco farmers eyeing 21% cut
Dec. 5, 2003
The News & Observer
By Kristin Collins, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
North Carolina tobacco farmers were bracing Thursday for what could be the biggest production cut since the industry started its downward slide six years ago.
U.S. tobacco companies announced Wednesday that they intend to buy 29.5 million fewer pounds of domestic flue-cured tobacco in 2004 than they did this year. And by Thursday, tobacco experts and farmers had figured out what that drop could mean when combined with falling exports and a surplus of American leaf: a cut of more than 21 percent to the amount that farmers can grow.
The numbers aren't official. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will announce the tobacco quota by Dec. 15.
But the only question that remains is how much U.S. production will be slashed.
"We're going to be run out of business," Mike Gay, a Greene County tobacco farmer, said Thursday.
Worried about the future of tobacco, Gay now grows hay and cotton and raises pigs on contract. "We're doing all that we can do," he said, "but nothing pays the bills like tobacco does."
Tobacco, long North Carolina's biggest cash crop, has been propped up since the 1940s by a price support program that limits the amount of tobacco grown.
Tobacco has allowed thousands of farmers to make a living on small acreage.
But, since 1997, farmers have seen the amount of tobacco they can grow cut by nearly half. And if next year's quota cut is as deep as expected, U.S. farmers will grow just over 421 million pounds of tobacco, down from nearly 1 billion in 1997.
Tobacco experts say this year's dramatic slide is a sign that it is time to change the U.S. tobacco program.
American leaf is being replaced by tobacco grown in Brazil, China and other countries that can grow it far more cheaply than American farmers. A pound of processed tobacco from Brazil goes for less than half the price of an American pound, which averages about $3.
The United States has gone from importing 15 percent of its tobacco in 1979 to 55 percent today. Since 1997, foreign imports have risen 11 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Exports of American tobacco to other countries have also fallen off sharply.
Push for buyout
Farmers lobbied this year for a federal buyout, which would have ended the price support program and eliminated quotas. Farmers must pay to rent or own a quota, which drives up the price of American tobacco. If that expense were eliminated, many say, American farmers could lower their prices and compete with foreign growers.
"I have known from the outset that this could happen," said Larry Wooten, president of the N.C. Farm Bureau. "That is why we have worked so desperately, so feverishly to try to make sure that a buyout happens."
But the sticking point is that farmers and quota holders want the government to pay them for the value of their quota before ending the program, which would cost at least $7 billion. The proposal is all but dead for this year.
U.S. Reps. Bob Etheridge and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina are asking U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman to calculate the quota -- which is based on domestic buying, expected exports and the amount of tobacco in reserve -- and then to adjust it upward by 3 percent, the largest amount allowed by law.
Veneman declined to do that last year, and this year, it appears even less likely because the federal tobacco program already has more than 130 million pounds of tobacco for which it cannot find a buyer. As part of the program, the government buys tobacco if cigarette companies aren't willing to pay the government-set price for it, then resells it at a discounted price.
Buyers on hold
Blake Brown, a tobacco economist at N.C. State University, said buyers are waiting to see whether the price support program will be dismantled and prices will drop even lower.
"It's a difficult sale," Brown said. "If you think about it from the perspective of a foreign buyer, you're thinking, 'Well, if they have a buyout next year, I might really get a good buy on this tobacco.' "
With bad news coming from all sides, tobacco farmers are left with few sources of hope, save faith.
"It is discouraging," said David Gardner, who has added sweet potatoes, cotton and turf grass to his Harnett County tobacco farm. "But the Lord has allowed us to make a living farming, and when something doesn't work out, something else will. It always does."
Staff writer Kristin Collins can be reached at 829-4881.
Vacant arena seats set minds to fret
Dec. 5, 2003
The News & Observer
By J. Andrew Curliss, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
RALEIGH -- The public authority that oversees the RBC Center is worried about slipping attendance at the West Raleigh arena as well as the number and types of events booked there.
On Thursday, the Centennial Authority unanimously agreed to form a group to promote the arena, increase use of it and recruit and stage major events for it.
Authority members said the group's efforts would be directed at such events as the National Hockey League All-Star game, the NCAA basketball tournament regional finals, the ACC basketball tournament, Davis Cup tennis and world championships in amateur sports such as figure skating. Top-name musicians who will pack the house will also be a focus.
Members of the group also want to increase support for the arena's major tenants: the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team and the N.C. State University basketball team.
Attendance for both teams has slipped this season at the arena which cost $167 million when it was built four years ago, mostly with taxpayer money.
"It bothers me greatly to come to N.C. State basketball and the Carolina Hurricanes and see all those empty seats," authority Chairman Steve Stroud said. "We've got to figure out a way to get the public involved."
The 19-member authority, which oversees the arena, was appointed by the city, county and state.
The authority has hired Gale Force Sports and Entertainment, a sister company of the Hurricanes, to manage the arena.
Dave Olsen, a Gale Force employee and the arena's general manager, said he welcomed the new focus.
"We do our job good, but this is about growing community awareness and getting more people here," he said. "The intent is to get more people into the building."
Even though there have been complaints about hefty ticket prices, officials said attracting crowds will require more than lowering ticket prices. They said, no matter the price, ticket demand is not strong.
The Hurricanes drew fewer than 9,000 people for a game last month -- the lowest turnout in more than three seasons. The team's average attendance of 11,676 is lowest in the National Hockey League this season.
Attendance at N.C. State basketball games is down, too. After averaging about 16,500 fans in the team's first season at the arena, Wolfpack fans dwindled to fewer than 14,000 a game last season. This year, the Wolfpack has been drawing an average of 12,200 people a game.
James Goodmon, chief executive of Capitol Broadcasting Co., will lead the new campaign.
It will mirror one he and the Friends of the Canes led in 2001 to double the Canes' season-ticket base. Capitol owns TV stations WRAL and WRAZ.
"Because of my experience with the Friends of the Canes, I wanted to head up the group to refocus us," Goodmon said. "You know, take it up a notch."
He added: "This is not a crisis, an 'Oh, my God, what are we going to do?' moment. But we do need to get together and do this."
It has long been a wish of boosters to host an NHL All-Star game at the arena, but fulfilling that desire may be contingent upon city and county approval of a proposed convention center and hotel in downtown Raleigh.
Stroud, a real estate developer and founding member of the authority, called for other events.
He said an ACC basketball tournament at the RBC Center is not an impossibility even though the ACC typically does not hold its year-end tournament on the home court of a member school. Moreover, league officials have looked to larger venues, such as the Georgia Dome, for future tournaments.
"There is no such thing as home court," Stroud said. "The tickets are distributed evenly."
The authority gave the task force a $50,000 budget but did not say how to spend the money.
Stroud said the arena must aggressively seek bigger events.
Partly, he said, the reason is to help Gale Force profit on operations. Gale Force says that in four years it has lost more than $16 million on arena management.
Stroud said a profitable arena would make it harder for the Canes to leave it.
"This has to be as profitable as it can be so it's not ever a burden on the taxpayers," he said.
Canes owner Peter Karmanos has talked about selling parts of the Hurricanes, which has lost millions in North Carolina.
NCSU Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, an authority member, asked whether the group would focus on who gets to use the arena and when -- at times a point of contention between Gale Force and the university.
Stroud said the new group would decide but that Fox will control an appointment to it.
Also in the group will be a representative of RBC Centura, the N.C. State Wolfpack athletics booster club and Gale Force. Two authority members will be a part.
A report is expected in February.
Staff writer J. Andrew Curliss can be reached at 829-4840.
Dec. 5, 2003
The News & Observer
By Lorenzo Perez, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Federal immigration agents took former N.C. State diving coach John Candler into custody Thursday, one day after the university accepted the Scarborough, England, native's resignation.
Efforts Thursday night to contact representatives for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were unsuccessful, but a spokeswoman for the Johnston County Jail confirmed that Candler, 63, was being detained there on an immigration-enforcement matter.
Candler's attorney, Lynn Calder, said Thursday night that they will pursue a bond hearing with a federal immigration court judge in Atlanta.
Candler's coaching career at N.C. State stretched almost 36 years, but the university placed him on paid administrative leave two weeks ago. The suspension coincided with a university investigation prompted by an e-mail message to chancellor Marye Anne Fox questioning his continued employment despite earlier convictions for misconduct.
An All-America diver at the University of Michigan who competed for his native England in the Olympic Games of 1960 and 1964, Candler pleaded guilty to indecent liberties with a 12-year-old girl in Ann Arbor, Mich., 37 years ago. Candler completed five years of probation without any violations, circuit court records from Washtenaw County, Mich., show. Candler also pleaded guilty in 1985 to indecent liberties with a 15-year-old Wake County girl and received a suspended sentence. He was ordered to undergo therapy after the second conviction and served three years of probation.
N.C. State officials have declined to comment on whether Candler's personnel file contained any evidence that the university knew about his 1966 conviction, which occurred before his employment at N.C. State.
Calder said Candler has been a legal permanent resident of the United States since the early to mid-1960s. He applied for citizenship once, Calder said, but it was not granted. Federal immigration agents have the authority to detain foreign nationals with the types of criminal convictions on Candler's record, Calder said, but she questioned why he was being detained now.
N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler declined to comment Thursday on Candler's detention.
Federal immigration officials have known about both of Candler's convictions since "the early to mid-90s," Calder said.
"They have never sought to detain him before," Calder said, "and there's nothing new going on here [in terms of any new charges]."
In an interview Wednesday night, Candler said he told N.C. State officials about his first guilty plea during his interviews in 1968 for an instructor's position in the university's physical education department. He also said that N.C. State officials encouraged him to plead guilty to the 1985 charge "to get it out of the media."
Declining to discuss specifics on either case, Candler said that if he had known that 37 years later he would lose his job, he would have requested trial on both occasions to fight the charges.
Staff writer Lorenzo Perez can be reached at 829-4643.
NCSU Faculty Takes Hard Line on New Elsevier Deal
Dec. 4, 2003
Library Journal Academic News Wire
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 Library Journal Academic News Wire.
Both the faculty and staff senates at the North Carolina State University have approved a tough resolution opposing the practice of bundling content and essentially authorizing the library not to renew its bundled deal with industry-leading STM publisher Elsevier.
Like a number of research libraries, NCSU is currently negotiating a renewal of its Elsevier package, which expires on December 31. The resolution blasts the practice of bundling journals and explicitly charges the NCSU libraries with maintaining "strong and flexible control over the state funds entrusted to it." NCSU Head of Collection Management Suzanne Weiner told the LJ Academic Newswire that NCSU's current Elsevier deal, negotiated through the Triangle Research Library Network, costs the library roughly $1.4 million annually. That translates into roughly 15 percent of NCSU's $9.2 million collections budget. Some 38 percent of the libraries' serials budget goes to Elsevier, representing 11 percent of NCSU's journals. In late November Cornell University decided not to renew its deal with Elsevier (see LJ Academic Newswire 11/13/03). Harvard and the University of California system have also publicly indicated their preference not to renew their deals.
Like those libraries, Weiner said that NCSU's major issue was the inflexibility of the bundled deal: "[Bundling] is becoming a real problem. Research libraries cannot afford to pay for content that we don't want, and cannot afford to be locked in long-term. It's not good fiscal management, and it doesn't give us a good return on our investment."
Perhaps the most striking element of NCSU's resistance is the level of faculty engagement. Weiner said the NCSU library committee, composed of faculty, staff and students, invited NCSU librarian Susan Nutter to make a presentation about the Elsevier negotiations--the result of which was the resolution. The resolution affirms the libraries' ability to "decline highly restrictive offers such as such as those proposed by Reed Elsevier for its ScienceDirect online product." The resolution passed unanimously, so if the library refuses a bundled offer, Weiner says, it will do so with full support of the university community. Still, Weiner stressed that NCSU has not made a decision to renew or to cancel, and is continuing to negotiate with Elsevier.
Cuba's tourism leader removed on large-scale corruption charges
Dec. 4, 2003
Knight Ridder Tribune News Service, Miami Herald, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Tampa Tribune, Toronto Globe & Mail, Philadelphia Inquirer, Mobile Register, Cincinnati Post, Akron Beacon-Journal, Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader
By NANCY SAN MARTIN
© Copyright 2003 Miami Herald
MIAMI - (KRT) - The president of Cuba's largest state-run tourism enterprise was abruptly removed from his post amid reports out of Havana on Thursday of a financial probe involving the disappearance of millions of dollars from the company's coffers.
The case may be one of the biggest corruption scandals in more than a decade, several analysts said.
According to British Broadcasting Corp., Juan Jose Vega was among several unidentified senior officials at Cubanacan, the tourism agency, placed under house arrest pending a probe of alleged financial improprieties. The BBC, citing unnamed government sources, said Raul Castro, defense minister and brother of President Fidel Castro, was directly involved in the investigation - an indication that Cuba is facing a serious corruption scandal.
"Raul only gets directly involved if it's big," said Alcibiades Hidalgo, a Cuban ambassador to the United Nations and personal secretary to Raul Castro before his defection last year.
"This is the tip of the iceberg; there is lots of corruption in Cuba," Hidalgo said. "The government may be preparing for a major purge."
Cubanacan was created in the 1980s to form partnerships with foreign investors in the tourism industry. The company grew quickly after Cuba opened its doors to visitors in the mid-1990s by operating hotel chains such as Spain's Sol Melia and running various other enterprises, including restaurants, travel agencies and rental car companies.
Cuban officials in Washington did not return Herald phone calls seeking comment. In Havana, authorities also were mum.
"We don't have any information about that," Mario Fernandez, of the Tourism Ministry's foreign relations office, told the Associated Press.
Employees answering the phone at several Cubanacan travel agencies around the capital would only confirm that Vega was no longer the company's president, the AP reported.
Several analysts said that while corruption scandals in the tourism industry have surfaced in the past, most recently in 1999, the industry is particularly vulnerable because of the large amount of foreign currency handled by Cuban managers who are paid in pesos.
"The temptation is high," said William LeoGrande, a Cuba expert at the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington. "Ever since they've begun to revitalize the tourist sector, they've had problems with corruption."
"There have been more financial irregularities in the tourism sector than in any other," said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council in New York, which monitors Cuba's economy. "As Cuba's economy continues to be in transition and the government can't provide higher standards of living, there's going to be a continuing and ever increasing impulse to try to get more no matter what the risk."
If the allegations are proven, several experts said, the penalty will likely be severe and made public, like the convictions of the 75 dissidents jailed earlier this year.
"It's in the Cuban government's interest to publicly show an aggressive response," Kavulich said, adding that placing Vega under house arrest, rather than in a jail cell, indicates that the investigation is at preliminary stages.
Others speculated that the probe was part of a ruse to oust officials who have fallen out of favor.
"It's quite possible, and even likely, that some of the Cuban tourism managers have gotten too rich or too powerful, or too whatever, for the tastes of the regime, and corruption is always a convenient fiction to take them out of the picture and replace them with less experienced, more controllable individuals," said Art Padilla, a professor of business management at North Carolina State University who has done studies on Cuba's tourism industry. "A sort of periodic house cleansing, if you will, to maintain control."
Said Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation. "It's either a big fight or a big robbery."
Still recovering from a multibillion-dollar loss of subsidies from the former Soviet Union in 1991, an economic downturn in the world economy and a drop in sugar prices - previously one of Cuba's key industries - tourism has evolved into the country's most important source of foreign currency, bringing in as much as $2 billion each year.
The BBC report said the alleged shortfalls were discovered earlier this year after the government implemented a new centralized system, controlled by Cuba's Central Bank, that prevented local businesses from keeping funds in U.S. dollars. Instead, they had to exchange their holdings into Cuban pesos.
Cubanacan handles about 40 percent of the island's tourism sector, and operates 51 hotels, a convention center, two marinas as well as travel offices, stores, restaurants, nightclubs and a taxi service, according to the AP.
N.C. State says it has first animals cloned in the state
Dec. 4, 2003
AP Regional Wires; Wilmington Star-News; NBC 17.com; News & Observer; WTVD-11; WVEC.com, VA; WCNC, NC; Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL, Knoxville News-Sentinel, Columbia State, Lexington Herald-Leader, St. Petersburg Times, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, Roanoke Times & World News, Tallahassee Democrat, Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) North Carolina State University said Thursday its researchers have cloned the first animals in North Carolina. Studying the two piglets could help prevent a fetal condition among humans, according to the lead researcher.
A team at N.C. State's College of Veterinary Medicine cloned a Duroc pig in early November, Dr. Jorge Piedrahita, the lead researcher, said Thursday evening.
Piedrahita, a former researcher at Texas A&M University, has cloned animals elsewhere. The piglets were weaned recently and are in excellent health, according to an N.C. State news release.
Damage caused to some of the piglets' genes in the cloning process helped researchers discover two new ``imprinted'' genes those that are inherited directly from either the mother or father
that also are found in human genes, Piedrahita said. ``The mechanisms that are disregulating genes in the pigs can be translated to what is happening in humans,'' Piedrahita said. Among the top genes tested were those that appeared linked to fetal development, he said.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University will work with Piedrahita to investigate whether the top imprinted genes affected in the pigs during the cloning and found in human placentas are involved in human intrauterine growth retardation.
Between 4 and 7 percent of unborn human babies are diagnosed with the growth retardation, meaning the fetus is growing at a lower rate that is expected at the gestational age.
The problem is usually diagnosed late in pregnancy, so finding clinical markers through the genes could pinpoint such problems earlier and help reduce the incidence of medical complications or death, according to Piedrahita.
Piedrahita's laboratory soon will have another litter of cloned pigs but doesn't plan to produce a large number of cloned animals at N.C. State.
``Cloning is not just about making an identical animal, it is about generating a tremendous amount genetic information that can aid not only animal medicine but also human medicine,'' he said.
Dec. 4, 2003
Betterhumans (Canada)
By Gabe Romain, staff reporter
© Copyright 2003
Using molecules for information storage and processing has been proven both durable and practical, addressing skepticism that the approach could survive real-world manufacturing and use.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside and North Carolina State University in Raleigh say that molecules can be adapted to current semiconductor fabrication technology and operate under conditions required for practical devices.
Because molecular information storage and processing involves high temperatures and up to one trillion operational cycles, the researchers sought to determine how durable and stable molecules would be under such conditions.
"If molecular materials can't compete against semiconductor materials under the rigorous conditions of the real world, then trying to implement them in electronic devices would be pointless," says North Carolina State University researcher Jonathan Lindsey.
"Because our goal is to develop molecule-based memory devices, we first had to test their durability and stability," Lindsey says.
Robust architecture
To develop the molecular architecture, the researchers attached porphyrins—disk-shaped organic molecules similar to chlorophyll—with specific electronic properties to an electroactive surface, storing information in the form of the molecules' positive charges.
Porphyrins are considered ideal building blocks for self-assembled structures due to their rigid geometry and ease of substitution.
After a series of tests, the molecular memories proved "extremely robust" and offered clear advantages over traditional semiconductor-based technology.
"The porphyrin-based information-storage elements exhibit charge-retention times that are long (minutes) compared with those of the semiconductor elements in dynamic random access devices (tens of milliseconds)," say the researchers.
Up to the challenge
Proving stable under extreme temperatures and large numbers of read-write cycles, the molecular devices have shown that organic molecules can meet required processing and operating challenges.
"There is a perception that organic molecules are fragile," says Lindsey. "The critical question has been whether, given the high temperatures and other stresses of production and use, any molecule-based devices could meet functionality standards. I believe our research has laid this question to rest, and demonstrated that appropriately chosen molecules can readily function in practical devices."
The findings should speed the development of organic-based electronics, which promise to be smaller, faster and more powerful.
The research is reported in the journal Science.
N.C. State Coach Resigns Over Sex Case
Dec. 4, 2003
State (The) (Columbia, SC); Spokane (WA) Spokesman Review; Lubbock (TX) Avalanche Journal; Journal-News (Hamilton, OH); Findlaw Legal News (Palo Alto, CA); Amarillo (TX) Globe News; AP Worldstream English Sports News; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By staff report
© Copyright 2003
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- John Candler resigned as North Carolina State's diving coach after an investigation turned up his 1966 conviction on a sex charge involving a 12-year-old girl.
The university said Wednesday that Candler will remain with the athletic department in an administrative capacity until he retires on March 31.
An investigation into Candler's past was triggered by an e-mail message sent Nov. 19 to Chancellor Marye Anne Fox's office by Jane Schneider, 53, of East Lansing, Mich.
According to circuit court records from Washtenaw County, Mich., Candler pleaded guilty in 1966 to indecent liberties with a 12-year-old girl. He served five years of probation.
Schneider had said she knew the victim in the Michigan case.
Candler told WRAL-TV in Raleigh that the university knew about the case in Michigan when he was hired.
"I would prefer not to resign, but the discomfort that's been caused to my wife, my family, my children and grandchildren, I just don't think it's fair," Candler said.
Candler said he will continue to run a swim club he operates in Raleigh.
Calls to Schneider and Candler by The Associated Press weren't returned Wednesday.
In 1985, Candler was charged with taking indecent liberties with a 15-year-old Wake County girl. According to Wake County Superior court records, Candler pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence. He served three years of probation and was ordered to undergo therapy.
Attorney Jack Nichols hasn't denied that the Candler in the Michigan case is the same person he represents in Raleigh.
Candler coached 16 All-Americans, 49 Atlantic Coast Conference champions and one Olympian in his 36 years at N.C. State.
Swimming coach Brooks Teal will oversee the divers through this season.
Nov. 1, 2003
Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association
By staff report
© Copyright 2003
QUERN QUESTION (On the next page is a picture of a quern which was built by Ed Hobbs and which was donated by the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association Area Q to Yates Mill Associates in Raleigh, North Carolina. With financial support from M-WTCA, which purchased the stones and the wood, Hobbs took about a week to do the final planning and figuring, cutting it out and assembling it. It was one of those projects, he said, "that you think about long and hard before you start as you have not done anything like that before." He hopes that this might get more members (EAIA and M-WTCA) involved in helping out and building things that are related to their missions. - Editor)
A quern (pronounced "kwurn") is an early form of a hand-operated gristmill. It consists of two horizontal millstones housed in a wooden frame. The top stone or "runner stone" is turned by hand with the use of a stick with a metal point in one end which is inserted in a small hole near the outside edge of the runner stone.
Grain is poured in the large hole in the middle of the runner stone. This runner stone is supported from below by a "bow tie" shaped piece of metal, which in turn is supported on a metal rod that comes up through a hole in the bottom stone. A configuration such as this allows the stone to be raised to adjust the degree of fineness of the finished product. The center hole is large enough to allow the grain to flow around the "bow tie" and be fed out along the grooves in the stone. The stones are like those that you may be familiar with in a full-sized gristmill.
This quern is based on one at Colonial Williamsburg and uses two sixteen inch mill stones. It works very well and makes one appreciate the power of water and how much energy it takes to make the quern work. In early October it was taken to a heritage day at another county park (Yates Mill is still under construction - the park center) and ground a good amount of corn. Both kids and adults lined up to operate it.
Yates Mill is the last remaining gristmill in Wake County where Raleigh, North Carolina, is located. It is officially a county park and will be open to the public when park construction is completed in early 2005. Yates Mill Associates has the responsibility to restore, maintain, and operate the mill. This collaborative effort between North Carolina State University, which owns the land, and Wake County, which will operate the park, is an outstanding example of how the public and private sector can cooperate to preserve a historic treasure that has been around since 1756. M-WTCA Area Q recognizes that these efforts are similar to its purpose and is pleased to have been able to help support this by donating the quern. The quern eventually will be used as part of the interpretation of Yates Mill.
In researching querns, however, I have been able to find very little available information. I would like to hear from anyone who has any information or who may have one or have used one so that we can better present this interesting part of milling history. I am looking for any help I can get that might add information we could use while we interpret the mill and show the quern.
Ed Hobbs, 4417 Inwood Road, Raleigh, NC 27603-3315 (919) 828- 2754. E-mail: hobbsed@msn.com
Diving Coach at North Carolina State U. Resigns After 1966 Misconduct Is Disclosed
Dec. 5, 2003
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Alice Gomstyn, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Chronicle of Higher Education.
After 36 years in which he coached 16 all-American divers at North Carolina State University, John Candler saw his career derailed this week, by a charge of misconduct that occurred in 1966. Mr. Candler, 63, resigned on Wednesday, several weeks after the university's chancellor, Marye Anne Fox, received an e-mail message alerting her to a criminal charge lodged against Mr. Candler nearly four decades earlier.
According to university officials, Mr. Candler, a former all-American diver himself, pleaded guilty in 1966 to taking indecent liberties with a 12-year-old girl in Ann Arbor, Mich. Mr. Candler also pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina in 1985. He did not serve jail time for either conviction.
In an article published on Wednesday by The News and Observer, a newspaper in Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Candler said that he told N.C. State officials about the 1966 conviction during his job interview, in 1968. "I find it indefensible to get so much media out of old information that is known by everybody," Mr. Candler said.
The former coach also told the newspaper that university officials had known about the 1985 charge and had encouraged him to plead guilty to it "to get it out of the media."
Officials at the university's athletics department have recently interviewed current and former divers, but administrators would not say on Thursday whether they had learned of any inappropriate contact between Mr. Candler and divers he has coached there. Mr. Candler told the newspaper that no such evidence had been found.
Lee G. Fowler, the university's director of athletics, told The Chronicle on Thursday that a search for a new diving coach would begin immediately. Mr. Candler will be missed, he said. "His record speaks for itself," Mr. Fowler said. "We appreciate all he's done for the university."
Mr. Fowler said he did not know whether university officials had been informed of Mr. Candler's 1966 conviction at the time of his hiring.
Mr. Candler could not be reached for comment.
Famed local writer Tarbell is Oilfield Journal focus
Dec. 5, 2003
The Derrick/ The News-Herald (Pennsylvania)
By Karen Clark, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Derrick.
Ida Tarbell, well known for her history of the Standard Oil Co. and as a biographer of Abraham Lincoln, is the subject of the third annual Oilfield Journal.
The Journal is a publication of The Colonel Inc., an associate group that supports Drake Well Museum. Margo Mong, a local historian, is the editor and publication chairman on the board of directors.
"The theme is Miss Tarbell from birth to death - coming to Rouseville, being there during the time of the fire, moving to Pithole and then going on to write about Standard Oil, it's amazing. The journal highlights our unique standing in world history by the events that happened here," Mong said.
"The past two issues of the Journal were a blend of oilfield history. But this was all Miss Tarbell - with a mix of articles written in the past and two new articles written specifically for the journal," said Mong.
Jonathan E. Helmreich, an Allegheny College historian, and Robert Kochersberger Jr., a faculty member at North Carolina State University, contributed articles for the publication.
Two other articles are by Paul Giddens, one-time curator at Drake Well and professor of history at Allegheny College. It was Tarbell who prompted Giddens to become the oil historian that everyone remembers him to be, according to Mong.
Other sources include Ernest C. Miller, another well-known author of oil material.
The Journal is illustrated with period photos of Tarbell from the Drake Well collection and the Ida M. Tarbell Collection at Pelletier Library at Allegheny College.
Mong also said one of the pictures included in the journal is a final image of the Drake Well derrick from a stereoscope view.
A group of oil producers had the derrick dismantled in 1875. It was carefully marked and sent by train to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where it was reassembled. At the exposition, the derrick was open to the public for an admission charge of 25 cents, but no money was made on the venture.
At the end of the exhibition, the derrick and engine house were carted off as trash, lost to Titusville forever.
"The image was previously published by the National Stereoscopic Association for the 1976 bicentennial, it's a rare view," Mong said.
Limited supplies of the Journal are available at the Drake Well gift shop.
Obit: Ernest William Rollins, Jr.
Dec. 5, 2003
The News & Observer
ERNEST WILLIAM ROLLINS, Jr., PhD, 71, passed away December 3, 2003, at the Universal Healthcare & Rehab Center. He was the eldest son of the late Agnes and Ernest Rollins of Winston-Salem.
Dr. Rollins retired from North Carolina State University after a career as Professor of German. He was editor of the book Men of Dialogue: Martin Buber and Albrecht Goes. He received his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University and his Doctorate from Indiana University.
He is survived by his brothers, Stuart Rollins and his wife, Jo Ann of Winston-Salem, Bob Rollins and his wife, Betsy of Augusta, GA, and Paul Rollins of Tucson, AZ; nephews, Andrew Rollins of New Orleans, Matthew Rollins of Atlanta, GA and Scott Rollins of Mount Dora, FL.
A graveside service is planned at Forsyth Memorial Park for 1:00 PM on Dec 22.