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NC State University News Clips for December 20-29, 2003

Compiled by North Carolina State University’s News Services, a part of the Public Affairs Office. Listed below are the current news clips. Click on the headline of interest to be taken to the full text. Click on “Return to Headline List” at the bottom of each clip or use the scrollbar to be taken back to this location.

CURRENT PRESS RELEASES

IN-STATE CLIPS

Waste lagoons feed trees
Experiment on Nash County farm uses plants to pull contaminants from pits

NATIONAL & REGIONAL CLIPS

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Waste lagoons feed trees

Dec. 29, 2003
The News & Observer
By Barbara Barrett, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

As a rumbling machine dug 4-foot trenches in the dirt of a Nash County hog farm recently, men followed with scrawny saplings to be planted. And just like that, an unused pit of sludge became a fledgling poplar grove.

A group of scientists, including one at N.C. State University, is promoting the idea of planting trees in sludge as an environmentally safe way to close up unused lagoons. After all, if old hog-waste lagoons have anything going for them, it's an abundance of fertilizer.

"It's something people can do. It's growing plants," said Louis Licht, president of Ecolotree, an Iowa company helping with the research. "We're trying to cycle this back into nature."

The Nash project is the first in which a hog lagoon has been closed using dirt and trees rather than by the federally mandated method of trucking the sludge away and spreading it on land, said Frank Humenik, one of the project's lead researchers and the coordinator of animal waste management programs at NCSU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

"We're looking at the benefit of keeping the sludge there in place," Humenik said. He's working on the project with Licht and J. Ronald Miner, a professor of bioengineering at Oregon State University.

The researchers pitch this new strategy as a low-cost, environmentally friendlier way of closing up old pits full of hog waste. Another benefit, they say, is that in about 15 years, landowners can sell the trees for timber.

Waste lagoons have long been a concern in North Carolina. The state, with 9.6 million hogs, is second in the nation only to Iowa in hog production.

A typical lagoon contains liquid waste atop a sludge of waste solids that have settled at the bottom of a pit. The sludge has high amounts of the nutrients phosphorus and nitrogen, plus the heavy metals copper and zinc. Neighbors near farms often complain of odors, and environmentalists have concerns about air pollution and groundwater contamination.

There are more than 4,500 active lagoons in the state, as well as 1,700 that are inactive, waiting to be closed. The General Assembly has extended a moratorium on new hog lagoons through September 2007, but it took no action on a bill that would have required farms to phase out existing lagoons.

Still, the researchers are anticipating that the lagoons will have to be closed eventually.

"We've got a lot of lagoons we've got to do something with," Humenik said.

Right now, no law requires North Carolina farmers to close unused lagoons. But for those who do, the required spread-the-sludge method can cost an average of $40,000 an acre, he said.

It's unclear how much the tree-farm method would cost, Humenik said, but it should be cheaper.

The test of time

Courtney Washburn, the clean water campaign coordinator with the Sierra Club, said the costs of the current method could rise if federal regulations on phosphorous spreading take effect in the next year. Then, she said, it will take more land to spread sludge.

Washburn drove out to the farm in early December to talk with the researchers and to check out the trees. She said she is interested in the research but isn't ready to comment on its merits until results come in.

That could take years. The real benefits won't be known, Humenik said, until the trees are timbered. In the meantime, researchers expect to spend five or 10 years testing tree survival, groundwater contamination and the rate that moisture is sucked through the soil.

Ideally, the poplar system works by making a few assumptions about Mother Nature and how water flows through the earth.

Licht's company, Ecolotree, has a patent on the process and has used it for landfills across the country. Licht describes the process as a "sponge and pump."

The soil and fast-growing poplars will soak up contaminated water from the sludge, he said. Trees will feed on the phosphorous and nitrogen. The water then will be pumped through the trees and into the atmosphere through a physical process called transpiration.

Small space, big effort

The Nash lagoon, owned by Hanor Farms, is small by lagoon standards, less than half an acre. But it has taken researchers two years to get to this point.

First, they pumped all the liquids out to an adjoining lagoon that the farm now uses for its hogs. A 5-foot layer of hardened sludge lay in the bottom of the pit.

The group dumped 4 feet of dirt on top. The trees were supposed to have been planted a year ago, but heavy rains kept refilling the pit and slowed the work. Also, contractors charged more to move the wet dirt.

Then, when the dirt was initially dumped in from the side, it tended to force the sludge into the middle of the pit. So researchers had to come up with a new way of pouring in the soil.

Finally, earlier this month, about 320 hybrid poplar trees were planted in trenches.

The research was sponsored with $56,000 in grants from the N.C. Pork Council and the NCSU Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center.

"If it's shown to work, it will be a passive, low-cost, long-term approach, which I think is fine," said Mike Williams, the NCSU center's director. "But the public needs to understand that it is passive, and it does take time."

Staff writer Barbara Barrett can be reached at 829-4870.

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N.C.'s Poultry Industry Could Benefit From Mad Cow Scare

Dec. 26, 2003
NBC17.com
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 NBC17.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The concern over the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States could provide a boost for North Carolina's pork and poultry industries.

While state cattle ranchers raise just 1 percent of the nation's herd, North Carolina is already a national leader in pork and poultry production. The state's pork and poultry farmers could profit if consumers change dining preferences out of fear of contracting a form of the disease, which can be fatal in humans.

"You've got to expect beef consumption will probably take a dip," state Agriculture Commissioner Britt Cobb said, "and could ultimately benefit pork and poultry producers."

State Veterinarian David Marshall said Wednesday that the food supply in North Carolina is safe, but monitoring efforts for mad cow disease will be stepped up.

Beef prices have been driven up recently in part by an outbreak of mad cow disease in Canada this spring, which curtailed imports, and the popularity of the high-protein Atkins diet, which has created more demand for beef.

The discovery of more cases of the disease could cause prices to fall, which would "be particularly disappointing for North Carolina livestock farmers," Marshall said.

"In the last four to six months they've been enjoying record prices, and for the first time in a long time are actually making big profits," Marshall said.

Marshall said pigs, chickens and turkeys can't contract the disease, and that's where other state farmers could see gains.

In 2002, the state led the nation in turkey production with a total of 45.5 million birds, valued at $429 million. The state was No. 2 in pork production with a herd of 9.7 million valued at $1.4 billion.

North Carolina ranks fourth in broiler production, raising 735 million birds valued at $1.37 billion.

Jesse Grimes, a turkey specialist and poultry professor at North Carolina State University, said consumers are likely to switch to pork and poultry if beef disease problems persist.

"I'd not want to see the poultry industry benefit from anything like this; we just hope it's only one cow," Grimes said. "As far as the economics are concerned and consumer demand, they'll go with the products they'll feel most comfortable with.

"If it doesn't get any bigger, it won't be an issue -- but if it does get bigger, there will be some decreasing beef consumption," Grimes said. "People will continue to eat meat and will turn to other types of meat. And increased poultry consumption could be a result of that deflection."

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New leaf varieties hardier

Dec. 26, 2003
The Rocky Mount Telegram
By Dorothy Y. Lewis, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Rocky Mount Telegram.

New tobacco varieties to be released in 2004 may resist economically devastating diseases, said Art Bradley, Edgecombe County Cooperative Extension agent.

"Tobacco farmers may want to consider planting these varieties during the 2004 farming season to help manage Granville wilt and Black shank," Bradley said.

Granville wilt and Black shank are some of the most destructive tobacco diseases in North Carolina, he said.

The first symptom of Granville wilt is the plant wilting on one side, according to agricultural officials at N.C. State University.

They said as the disease progresses, the entire plant wilts and dies.

Black shank sometimes can be confused with Granville wilt because both cause tobacco crops to wilt and die, they added.

However, they said yellowing of the tobacco leaf is characteristic of Black shank.

Bradley said Twin Counties farmers lost thousands of dollars to Granville wilt and Black shank, costing Edgecombe County tobacco farmers about $250,000 in 2003.

The four new types of disease resistant tobacco are NC 299, NC 810, NC 102 and Speight 210.

"As with any new variety, it is best to only plant a limited acreage until more information and experience is available from a wider range of soil conditions," Bradley said. "Ratings for the new varieties are based on limited data and may change after more tests are conducted."

A meeting will be held at 10 a.m. Jan. 13 at the Edgecombe County Administration Building to discuss the new tobacco varieties.

Anyone interested in attending can contact Bradley at 641-7815.

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Cut in tobacco quota for 2004 will hurt producers

Dec. 21, 2003
The Sampson Indepedent
By L.E. Brown, Jr., staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Sampson Indepedent.

It wasn't as big a cut as some feared, but the 10.8 percent cut in the national tobacco quota for 2004 nevertheless will hurt tobacco producers, according to observers.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that the national marketing quota for 2004 would be 471.3 million pounds, down from the 2003 quota of 526.3 million pounds - a cut of 10.45 percent in the basic quota.

This cut is less than the 20-22 percent talked about before the sale of 45 million pounds from the farmer-owned Flue-Cured Cooperative Stabilization Corporation.

"While less damaging than the potential 22 percent cut farmers had dreaded, another cut in an already record low quota leaves many farmers facing a difficult financial situation in 2004, or at best facing difficult decisions about their future in tobacco production," said Dr. A. Blake Brown, professor of agricultural and resource economics at North Carolina State University.

According to the Farm Service Agency public affairs office in Washington, D.C., the quota is based on purchase intentions by domestic cigarette manufacturers, a three-year average of unmanufactured exports, a reserve stock adjustment and a discretionary adjustment.

The discretionary adjustment describes the authority given to the U.S. secretary of agriculture to adjust the formula calculation up or down by three percent. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman opted to raise the formula poundage by the maximum allowed of three percent, adding 13.7 million pounds to the quota.

The USDA also announced that the no-net-cost assessment will be ten cents per pound. The producer will pay five cents and the purchaser five cents. Public affairs says that stabilization was consulted before the no-net-assessments were set.

For Sampson County tobacco producers who didn't make their quota in 2003 - and most didn't due to wet weather, says Bill Ellers, local Cooperative Extension agent, the cut will be less than the 10.45 percent. That's because, Ellers explained, farmers can carry used quota poundage over into the next sales season.

Ellers added that it is small comfort for farmers to be able to carry over 2003-produced poundage into 2004, since what they did produce in 2003 was often produced at high cost. "There was a significant increase in cost per pound produced," Ellers said, "including farmers having to fertilize more than usual to try to make up for leaching caused by heavy rains."

However, added Ellers, farmers who contract directly with tobacco companies for the sale of their tobacco and don't have an extended contract, could find their poundage cut, depending on the amount the companies are willing to buy. If a producer contracts for less poundage than he produces, the balance would have to be sold at auction or carried over until the next year.

Ellers says that, according to information he has, the effective quota for Sampson County was 12,281,758 in 2003. Although it will vary from grower to grower, a 10.45 percent cut would meant a reduction of 1,283,444 pounds, bringing Sampson County's 2004 quota to 10,998,314 pounds.

L. E. Brown, Jr. can be reached at 910-592-8137, ext. 20.

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Mad cow may hurt N.C. ranchers

Dec. 25, 2003
The Charlotte Observer
By Erica Beshears and Rick Rothacker, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Charlotte Observer.

Cattle farmers in the Charlotte region say they are confident in the safety of beef, but worry that panic over mad cow disease could lower beef prices and their bottom line.

"Anytime you have this type news, you're dealing with the minds of people," said Larry Baxter, 65, of Lincoln County, one of five cattle farmers reached by The Observer Wednesday. "It's definitely going to have an impact on the market."

On Wednesday, as federal agriculture officials rushed to unravel the background of the cow that tested positive for mad cow disease in Washington state, N.C. officials tried to assure the public that beef is safe to eat.

"Eat what you like," N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Britt Cobb said. "My family and I ... are going to eat beef as we planned."

The federal investigation will determine whether the apparently infected cow is an isolated case, said State Veterinarian David Marshall.

Until that time, North Carolina and its farmers can do little besides be more vigilant in their preventative measures and inspecting cattle presented for slaughter, Marshall said.

"The ramifications in North Carolina right now are primarily going to be economic towards the cattle producer," Marshall said.

The scare could end a great year for the beef industry that saw soaring prices. Choice-grade filets that cost $6.55 per pound wholesale in September 2002 cost $7.90 in September 2003 and $13 in mid-November.

N.C. State University economist Michael Walden predicted little fallout for North Carolina because the state has a small share of the cattle industry.

North Carolina has 920,000 head of cattle, just under 1 percent of the national herd. Four of the top 10 cattle-producing counties are near Charlotte -- Iredell, Union, Cleveland and Rowan.

No S.C. agriculture officials were available for comment Wednesday. But a fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed cattle and calves to be South Carolina's fifth-biggest agricultural commodity in 2002.

Jack Ferguson of York, S.C., owns 250 brood cows and operates the York Stock Yard.

"When everything's going real well, and the cattle's selling real good," he said, "it's just like a kick in the gut."

Ferguson canceled a livestock sale set for Monday because he worried uncertainty about the case could hurt the market.

The holidays are slow for the cattle industry anyway, Ferguson said. He hopes officials know more by the time sales usually pick back up in January.

Ferguson will keep eating beef. "I went to Burger King this morning and ate a cheeseburger just to show them," he said.

North Carolina's multibillion-dollar pork and poultry industries could benefit, Walden said. "If it's one case and contained and there are strong assurances that there will be no more cases, then it will be extremely minimal," he said. "If it spreads, it could be a significant impact."

What Farmers Can Do

Cattle farmers should already be taking the following steps to protect their cattle. For any farmers who don't take these precautions, now would be a good time to start, said N.C. Veterinarian David Marshall.

• Make sure to follow 1997 Food and Drug Administration rules banning the feeding of meat and bone meal to ruminant animals, such as cows.

• Do not feed cows any unapproved feed, such as pet food.

• Keep good records of animals, such as where they were purchased and the history of the herd they came from.

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Centennial space expanding

Dec. 29, 2003
Triangle Business Journal
By Amanda Jones, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.

RALEIGH - North Carolina State University is expanding its Centennial Campus in dramatic fashion, hoping to add as much as 240,000 square feet of office space on its campus in west Raleigh.

The university is seeking a developer to plan and construct a cluster of office buildings on 5.7 acres of the 1,334-acre campus. The current expansion would increase the size of the Centennial Campus by about 25 percent, the biggest expansion since the research park opened its doors in 1988.

The campus has a total of 967,633 square feet of non-academic office space, but only 858,000 square feet is leasable. Of that, about 5 percent is vacant. That vacancy rate compares to 14.7 percent for the west Raleigh office submarket and 17.7 percent for the entire Triangle office market.

The 15-year-old campus, which is managed by the Centennial Campus Development Office, offers an environment in which corporate researchers work side-by-side with members of the university faculty as well as with post-graduate students. Bob Geolas, who heads the development office, was on holiday and could not be reached for comment.

"Centennial Campus has done a good job creating synergy between the corporate tenants and the university," says Jack Dunn with Lincoln Harris' office in Raleigh. "Companies want to be there."

Noting the demand, university officials have started the process for the campus' next big project.

Cary-based Craig Davis Properties is viewed as the front-runner for development of the tract, which is across from the Red Hat's corporate headquarters. At least three other groups are competing for the project: Carter & Associates of Atlanta, Lincoln Harris of Charlotte and Hamilton Merritt of Cary.

Craig Davis Properties was the first private office developer granted permission to build on the university campus in 1997. That agreement included a 40-year ground lease with a 10-year renewal option to build a 400,000-square-foot office cluster called Venture Center and a 1,600-space parking deck. The deal includes a requirement that the university approve each tenant.

Davis now is building the 110,000-square-foot Venture IV office building on the last lot within the Venture Center cluster. Slated to open in March, half of that building is preleased to the United States Department of Agriculture.

The development proposals are due at the end of January. Some retail elements could be included on the ground floor of the project, which is estimated to cost $36 million. The new site offers topographical challenges due to the fact that the Neuse River bisects a part of it. A parking deck also will have to be built.

A decision on a developer is expected to be made by the university's trustees in the spring.

A total of 58 companies now lease space on Centennial Campus. That includes 16 startups in information technology and biosciences and 12 major corporations. Companies such as ABB, Bayer Corp. and TogetherSoft are among the big-name corporate tenants in the park.

"It's a viable location," says Gregg Sandreuter, president of Hamilton Merritt. "That's why we want to be involved."

Sandreuter says he believes a hotel, conference center and golf course proposed for the campus could be put back on the university's agenda and be built within the next year or two. The university had vowed to go forward with the controversial project until the Council of State, which is headed by Gov. Mike Easley, stopped it due in part to complaints from private-sector interests.

The campus, Sandreuter says, " ... already has such a good reputation for primary research and education programs."

Centennial Campus is taking shape in other ways, with four buildings currently under construction. Besides the Venture IV building, they are the headquarters for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, NCSU's nanoscience research center and a College of Veterinary Medicine research building.

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Service industry is key in N.C.

Dec. 28, 2003
The Charlotte Observer
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003 The Charlotte Observer.

Michael Walden is a professor and extension economist at N.C. State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. His semiannual forecast of the N.C. economy calls for 66,000 new jobs by the third quarter of next year. Below are excerpts from his responses to questions submitted by staff writer Charles Lunan.

Q. What do you see emerging to replace tobacco, furniture and textiles as the foundation of North Carolina's economy? On the manufacturing side, tech, pharmaceuticals, instruments, industrial and transportation equipment, and food processing. Tourism will also increase in importance, and growth related to attracting financially secure "baby boom" retirees will be very important to many communities.

More jobs will be in services, but this isn't all bad. Over half (60 percent) of the service jobs added in N.C. in the past decade paid more than the manufacturing jobs lost. Service jobs in the professions, management, education and health care can pay very impressive salaries. Education is the key to a higher-paying service job.

Q. What about the future of manufacturing in North Carolina? I would not characterize the manufacturing sector as declining. Employment is falling, but employment is just one input. Non-economists tend to equate employment with output. It's very akin to what has happened in the last 50 years in agriculture, where we have downsized the number of farmers by 80 percent but doubled output.

Q. Are rural and urban North Carolina now farther apart than ever when it comes to economic opportunity? Why or why not? Yes, because economic change is now taking place faster. More rapid communication and transportation technologies are speeding the restructuring of the N.C. economy. This is boosting economic growth in metro counties, where the higher-skilled work force resides, and reducing growth rates in rural counties. Rural counties also suffer from a "brain drain" of the best and brightest migrating to urban areas. This makes it more difficult for rural counties to attract higher-salaried jobs.

Q. Where is N.C. most competitive going into 2004? In selected food-production industries, like poultry and swine, and in "education-intensive" industries such as tech, medicine and health care, pharmaceuticals, and engineering. The interface between educationally intensive industries and higher-education institutions in N.C. is one of our strongest and best-known and admired traits.

Q. What surprised you most about the N.C. economy in 2003? The faster pace of economic change. This has both positive and negative sides. On the positive side, the faster development and dissemination of new technology is continuing to boost worker productivity. Over the long run, higher worker productivity is linked to higher standards of living.

But the negative ramification of quicker economic change is it's speeding the restructuring occurring in the N.C. economy. It's causing the more rapid downsizing in N.C.'s traditional industries, and it's giving workers and communities very little time to plan and react.

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People: N.C. State University

Dec. 29, 2003
The News & Observer
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

Carl C. Koch, professor of materials science and engineering and associate head of the department of materials science and engineering, is the 19th recipient of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Extension. Koch received the award in a November ceremony. The award presentation was followed by Koch's lecture "Lifelong Learning and Teaching in a Changing Profession." He joined the College of Engineering faculty in 1983.

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He uses his gifts for good

Dec. 28, 2003
The News & Observer
By Melanie Sill, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

Jim Goodmon's name has come up every year since The News & Observer launched its Tar Heel of the Year feature in 1997.
Others will tell you his name comes up every time someone in the Triangle wants to begin a major community effort, whether it's for profit or a philanthropic cause. If Goodmon doesn't get the call, his wife Barbara might.

Editors picked Goodmon, president and CEO of Capitol Broadcasting Co., as the 2003 Tar Heel of the Year because of his involvement and influence in two arenas: the redevelopment of Durham's American Tobacco complex and the national debate about how many TV and radio stations a single media company should be allowed to own.

Goodmon's profile by Anne Saker and Jonathan B. Cox, on Page 1 today, describes a man who grew up with some advantages and who multiplied those gifts for his company and his community.

There's some irony to this recognition, Goodmon notes. After all, part of his grandfather's motivation in founding WRAL-TV was to counter the Democratic influence of The News & Observer, then owned by the Daniels family.

These are different times for both the station and the newspaper, which the Danielses sold in 1995 to the McClatchy Co. The N&O and WRAL have several collaborative efforts: nightly N&O headlines on WRAL-TV, the station's Greg Fishel on our weather page and a Saturday night news show I co-host with WRAL's David Crabtree.

Our primary relationship is competitive. The N&O's news staff aims to beat WRAL's as often and as soundly as possible. Our ad sales representatives go head to head with Capitol Broadcasting's sales force every day.

We also collaborate with other TV stations.

In his fight over broadcast regulation, Goodmon has championed the idea that local voices matter. On that, we agree.

The N&O launched the Tar Heel of the Year to show how individual leadership shapes events and issues across our state. This seems more important each year.

Our inaugural choice was banking heavyweight Hugh McColl. The others, in order: historian John Hope Franklin, evangelist Franklin Graham, N.C. Museum of Art director Larry Wheeler, University of North Carolina system president Molly Broad and N.C. State University women's basketball coach Kay Yow.

In each case, the personal story helped explain our state's character and history. We hope you enjoy reading about Jim Goodmon's part in this region's evolution.

And Jim, we hope your reporters spend the rest of the day trying to catch up with ours.

Executive editor Melanie Sill may be reached at 829-8986.

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Being David Thompson

Dec. 28, 2003
The News & Observer
By Dane Huffman, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

David Thompson doesn't have to write out his name on the list for pickup basketball at the downtown YMCA in Charlotte. While others might write "Bob" or "James" on the sheet in the musty gym, Thompson simply scribbles, "DT."

Everyone knows who that means.

Three decades after he starred at N.C. State, Thompson remains one of the best-known figures in the history of North Carolina sports. In his prime, Thompson's game was laced with grace. He did not run the court so much as float across it. When he shot, his long arms raised the ball with a fluid arc before snapping forward to let it fly high and true. He leapt so high, the Guinness Book of World Records measured his phenomenal standing leap at 42 inches. He played so well, he became the NBA's highest paid player.

Sadly, drugs, alcohol and injuries eventually laid claim to these talents. "Like a comet, I had blazed across the horizon and then burned out," Thompson writes in his autobiography, "Skywalker." "The worst part was, I had no one else to blame."

Thompson is naturally shy and never boastful, so the fact that he has written a book about his life is a surprise. But "Skywalker" is an honest, absorbing story that will even appeal to non-basketball fans. Assisted by co-authors Sean Stormes and Marshall Terrill, Thompson has written a celebrity's view of fame in our media culture. He describes how easy it was to define himself by his public image and how hard it was to make a life for himself off the court.

Thompson was born on July 13, 1954, in Boiling Springs. His poor beginnings are well-known to ACC fans, but some of the details from the book are still astonishing. He was the 11th, and final, child of Vellie and Ida Thompson. When he was a boy, two adults and the eight kids then living at home crammed into a three-bedroom cinderblock house. The family drew water from a well. "As for personal space," he wrote in a comment typical of the humor sprinkled throughout the book, "there was always the outhouse."

He admired his father greatly, and writes about how when his father was fired from a job he had held for 19 years because the owner didn't want to pay him a pension, he promptly went out and found a different job as a janitor.

"In all my life, I have never met a more practical man," Thompson wrote.

But even his father's wisdom could not prepare Thompson for the challenges ahead, and "Skywalker" reminds us how young and inexperienced Thompson was when he thrust into public view. He was so intensely recruited at Shelby's Crest High School that University of North Carolina coach Dean Smith spoke at his high school athletics banquet. He was just 17 when he entered N.C. State -- and questions about his recruitment led the NCAA to put the school on probation for the 1972-73 season.

The 1973-74 season, however, would be a magic one for the 19-year-old Thompson and N.C. State. Sports fans will relish Thompson's retelling of the victories over Maryland and UCLA in the Wolfpack's run to the NCAA title.

But his life away from the court is just as engaging. Thompson was the first black star at N.C. State, and the reader yearns for more about this aspect of his life. For example, he talks about how he started dating a white woman, Cathy, a relationship that "raised a few eyebrows." However, Thompson wrote, "I'm sure I was cut some slack because of who I was."

He continued: "I was just a 20-year-old kid from Boiling Springs, North Carolina, who wanted to play hoops. Surfing through the waves of social chaos was a bit frightening, and I was just trying to find out where I fit in."

He found out he fit in some circles he now wishes he had avoided.

He started going to beer parties as an N.C. State freshman. Soon his drinking increased. One night at State, he was driving too fast, swerved to miss an oncoming car and crashed into a tree. He called police to report the car was stolen, "something I deeply regret today."

As a professional player, he started using cocaine, developing an addiction that would lead to his downfall. His NBA career was cut short after nine seasons when he tore up his knee after an employee pushed him down some steps at Studio 54 in New York City. In the book, he denies that the incident happened because he was flirting with a hat-check girl, but he acknowledges that the incident "both devastated and humiliated" Cathy, now his wife and mother of two children.

He continued to drink, even after landing a job in community relations with the Charlotte Hornets. In one particularly sad moment, he failed to show for a speaking engagement with a youth group in 1988. The Hornets promptly sent him to a rehabilitation center in California, and Thompson says he has been clean and sober since.

Thompson doesn't name those with whom he shared his addictions, but he does provide frank details of his own abuses. And the book also clarifies much of his life, including the fact that most of his money was lost to poor investments, not substance abuse.

The book gives Thompson a chance to give his side of his life's story, a story known by many around North Carolina. Even now, he is recognized by many when he moves around the state. But he has spent much of his adulthood evolving from a man whose life centered on basketball to one whose purpose has shifted to faith and family. And he writes about how his Christian beliefs helped him move from rooting his sense of worth in his basketball skills.

"It took me years to figure out that all the fame and fortune in the world won't make you happy or give you real peace of mind," Thompson wrote.

To many others, of course, he will always be remembered for his basketball skills, although there are some times someone might not realize who he is. At the YMCA, sometimes a rival player will wonder why his team lost to a 49-year-old man.

Who are you? he'll ask Thompson.

Thompson never has to answer.

"He's David Thompson!" the others will interject, amused that someone might not recognize him.

With his book, a more complete understanding of David Thompson is now possible.

Autobiography: Skywalker

By David Thompson, with Sean Stormes and Marshall Terrill

Sports Publishing

$22.95

272 pages

Dane Huffman is assistant sports editor for The News & Observer.

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Opinion: N.C. forests are doing fine

Dec. 28, 2003
The Charlotte Observer
 © Copyright 2003 The Charlotte Observer.

From Bob Slocum, executive vice president of the N.C. Forestry Association in Raleigh, in response to "2003 report on the environment":

What a nice change it would be to wake up one day and read an article about the environment and discover that the sky wasn't falling on me. Unfortunately, The Observer's Dec. 7 "2003 Report on the Environment, " which candidly acknowledged that it was not a scientific overview, fell victim to this same old song and dance from the same people. Instead of an objective look at environmental issues, the article became a diatribe on the Bush administration and a forum for certain groups to forward their own agendas.

Let's look at our forests. Despite our state's enormous population boom and the loss of nearly a million acres since 1990 due to conversion of forestland to urbanization or agriculture, North Carolina still ranks in the top five in forested states, with about 17.6 million acres of forest -- nearly 58 percent of the state. These incredibly diverse forests provide wildlife habitat for countless species, clean water and clean air.

They also provide the raw material that fuels the state's second largest manufacturing industry -- forest products, with an annual economic impact estimated at over 300,000 jobs and almost $30 billion. North Carolina is in the top 10 nationally in virtually every major measure of industry productivity and economic impact.

While some say this industry has a negative impact on our forests, the opposite is true. The Southern Forest Resource Assessment, a federally funded report, concluded that most forest landowners expect that someday there will be a monetary return from selling their timber, starting the forest products chain that takes a tree and turns it into one of the 5,000 forest products that North Carolinians use every day.

It's estimated that North Carolina has over 600,000 private forest landowners -- the most of any state. In many cases, the land is passed down through generations and the timber has put children through college, paid medical bills or provided the income needed to live.

That is why the most important issue affecting the health and future of our forests is the health of our state's forest products industry. Like other basic manufacturing, the forest products industry faces difficult times. Cheap foreign labor, imports, a sluggish economy and increasing domestic costs and regulations have eroded the industry's ability to compete in domestic and world markets. If we lose the forest industry, our forests will lose much of their economic value to their owners -- and then we will lose much of our forestland.

As our state's population grows, we must provide the infrastructure and homes to live in. In the face of this growth, some want to address the problems with more regulations and restrictions on landowners. This will only make matters worse and increase the costs and risks of a forestry investment. What's needed is a balanced approach that provides a positive climate that encourages landowners to invest in forest management and to keep their land in trees.

The North Carolina Forestry Association, in cooperation with the North Carolina Industries of the Future Program at North Carolina State University, recently completed a report that details the challenges forest landowners and owners of forest products companies face in this global economy. The report details recommendations for state government and the industry itself on what actions need to be taken to conserve our forestlands and maintain North Carolina's position as a top manufacturer of forest products.

The forests of our state and region are one of the nation's greatest conservation success stories and a tribute to the cooperation between private landowners and the forest products industry. To ensure the next chapter of this story, forest landowners must have the incentives and markets to keep North Carolina green and growing.

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Letter to the Editor: Turning out teachers

Dec. 28, 2003
The News & Observer
 © Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

Regarding the Dec. 9 article "UNC targets teacher scarcity":

The state's need for 12,000 new teachers each year will take more than the efforts of the UNC campuses to produce them. What's needed is 1) an overhaul of the entire system of the state's program approval of campuses' teacher licensure programs and 2) full implementation of the mentoring program for beginning teachers.

My own and my colleagues' studies show that working conditions for beginning teachers need improvement. Institutions preparing teachers and schools employing beginning teachers both need leadership and financial resources to truly carry out the programs they are qualified to administer.

To address teacher supply, UNC campuses are offering alternative licensure options to individuals holding a bachelor's degree. These students add strains to already tight budgets for teacher education that are costly for the clinical and field experience of upper-level students. Financial incentives should be established for post-bachelor's degree holders as well as financial aid for regular teacher education students to help them through the additional expenses associated with full-time student teaching assignments and with the cost of testing required for licensure.

In addressing teacher supply, a first step is to focus on retention efforts to get beginners through those crucial first three years. This is even more important with lateral-entry teachers who come with limited preparation in understanding how learners learn and how to make their content fields meaningful and memorable to students.

Barbara M. Parramore
Professor Emeritus
College of Education
N.C. State University
Raleigh

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Job losses, bank merger top business stories in 2003 in NC

Dec. 28, 2003
The Associated Press, The Miami Herald
By Paul Nowell
 © Copyright 2003 Associated Press.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In one fell swoop, textile maker Pillowtex Corp.'s bankruptcy put nearly 5,000 people out of work in North Carolina, a swift loss that underscored the slow decay of the state's old-line manufacturing sector.

Only a few months later, Bank of America Corp. stunned Wall Street by bidding $47 billion to buy the assets of FleetBoston Financial Corp., New England's largest bank, and extend its prodigious footprint into one of the most affluent regions of the country.

It's a toss-up whether the staggering job losses that continue to plague traditional industries such as textiles, furniture, tobacco and apparel beats the Bank of America-Fleet Financial merger as North Carolina's top business story in 2003.

The pending merger, which is easily North Carolina's biggest "new economy" story this year, could herald the start of another wave of consolidation in the U.S. banking industry.

Manufacturing layoffs generated more headlines in 2003, but experts said the merger will mean more to the state down the road.

"The bank merger is a more important event in the long run than the Pillowtex closing, which is not to say that was not a painful thing for the workers and their families," said North Carolina State University economist Michael Walden. "It's troubling, but not unexpected, and a continuation of a trend of downsizing in manufacturing."

Gary Shoesmith, an economist at Wake Forest University, said choosing the top business story for 2003 in North Carolina was a close call.

"The manufacturing losses are old news," he said. "There's nothing surprising about that, while the bank merger is very important to Charlotte and the bank."

To Shoesmith, one of the most intriguing developments was how uneven the economic recovery has been in North Carolina.

"There's a large disparity between the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point) and rural areas that are impacted by manufacturing job losses, and Charlotte and the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill), where the economic engine continues to perform well," he said.

As the year drew to a close, state lawmakers in Raleigh held a special session to try to jump start the state's sagging manufacturing sector. They approved millions of dollars in incentives and tax breaks to lure drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. and encourage R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to add jobs.

RJR, which cut 1,700 positions in the Winston-Salem area in the fall, plans to add 800 to 1,000 jobs as part of its merger with Brown & Williamson, the No. 3 cigarette company.

Hardly a week went by in 2003 without a round of layoffs, including RJR's announcement in September that it was cutting 40 percent of its total work force in a sweeping restructuring. Most of the cuts were in the Winston-Salem area.

"At the national level, the rate of job losses is much slower," Shoesmith said. "We're not done here. Wait for furniture to swallow its medicine."

Layoffs also hit Charlotte's Duke Energy Corp., which cut thousands of jobs and changed much of its management leadership in 2003 as the global energy company tried to right itself after several years of disappointing results.

On Nov. 1, turnaround specialist Paul Anderson took over as chairman and chief executive, replacing Rick Priory, who had led Duke Energy during one of the toughest periods in its nearly 100-year history.

Duke has said it intends to slash about 2,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its work force, and should post a lower-than-expected annual profit after reporting a 79 percent drop in its third-quarter earnings.

By contrast, Bank of America's march up the East Coast into New England was a move in the right direction. Wachovia Corp. and BB&T also made some strategic acquisitions in 2003, but none to compare with Bank of America's planned takeover of FleetBoston.

Walden said the deal makes a lot of sense.

"If Bank of America really wants to go nationwide, it needs to be as diversified as possible," he said. "Now it can balance one region of the country off another. For example, if the Southeast economy is not doing well, the bank can make a profit if the Northeast is doing better."

Bank of America and Wachovia had some of their own problems in 2003, getting caught up in a widening mutual fund scandal involving allegations that fund managers benefit from improper trading, often at investors' expense.

Other top business stories of 2003 in North Carolina:

_ Wachovia Corp. and Prudential Financial Inc. combined their retail brokerage operations, creating one of the nation's largest brokerage firms with client assets of more than $530 billion.

Wachovia, the nation's fourth-largest bank with headquarters in Charlotte, will own 62 percent of the new firm while Prudential will own the remaining 38 percent.

_ Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, the state's largest health insurer, admitted it denied or underpaid about 140,000 emergency room claims over five years, earning the largest fine levied against an insurance company in the state.

Blue Cross turned over a check for $1.825 million after the Chapel Hill-based insurer and Insurance Commissioner Jim Long agreed on a settlement that avoided a public hearing and a potential penalty of up to $140 million.

_ In November, parties settled a $3.2 billion lawsuit filed by Eric Hunter, a co-founder of Cree Inc., who accused his brother and other company executives of violating securities fraud and breaching fiduciary duties.

The Durham company makes silicone carbide semiconductor wafers used to make low-voltage, light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.

The case caused Cree's stock to lose about a third of its value during the summer, prompted more than a dozen class-action lawsuits by disgruntled investors - many of which remain unresolved - and led the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to begin an informal inquiry.

_ Burlington Industries, once the world's largest textile maker, emerged from nearly two years of Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization as a private company. Financier Wilbur Ross, chairman of WL Ross & Co., said the company's $614 million buyout of the struggling textile firm was complete. Ross hinted he might merge Burlington with Cone Mills Corp., which he was in the process of acquiring as the year closed.

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Having been replaced with farm ponds, fields, once-prominent tree making comeback in S.C.

Dec. 28, 2003
The Times and Democrat (Orangeburg, SC)
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003 Lee Enterprises.

Atlantic white cedar bogs, many of which have been replaced with farm ponds and drained fields, are returning - with man's help - to South Carolina in a small way on the state's heritage preserves.

Staff of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Diversity Section and contract workers planted 5,000 Atlantic white-cedar seedlings in fall 2002 on Aiken Gopher Tortoise Heritage Preserve in Aiken County. "This is the first Atlantic white cedar restoration project on publicly owned and open-to-the-public land in South Carolina," said Johnny Stowe, statewide heritage preserve manager for DNR's Wildlife Diversity Section and a wildlife biologist and forester for the state's Heritage Trust Program.

The 2-foot-tall white cedars, often called junipers, were planted on a drained pond site along Spring Branch; many of the trees in knee- or waist-deep mud on the Aiken County preserve, an area acquired to protect a unique longleaf pine sandhills ecosystem containing the northernmost gopher tortoise population, Stowe said.

"In South Carolina, Atlantic white cedar is usually associated with sandhills ecosystems, so restoring this imperiled species fits perfectly with our mission to restore and maintain native ecosystems," he said.

DNR hired a crew of 15 migrant tree planters to do the bulk of the work. DNR biologists Jamie Dozier and Stowe, along with retired conservation officer Seabrook Platt, assisted. State Heritage Land Trust Fund monies were used to plant the trees, which were donated to DNR by Dr. Eric Hinesley with the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University. The North Carolina Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supplied planting stock and essential technical advice, and local volunteer Jimmy Sizemore provided invaluable help.

"Jimmy's help on this project is reflective of his superb assistance over the last eight years on this preserve," Stowe said. "Without his support we would have been unable to accomplish most of the vital work on this preserve. Living next door as he does, he keeps us appraised of what goes on there, and in an isolated site such as this preserve, such partnerships are of paramount importance. Jimmy leads field trips, allows us use of his shop, lets us keep equipment there, and informs us of daily happenings on the preserve, everything from violations to species discoveries.

"In summer 2003 we took measurements for a survival and growth study on 120 randomly selected white cedar seedlings of the 5,000-plus planted," Stowe said. "We recently took the year's final measurements for 2003 and were elated to find that both the spring-to-summer as well as the summer-through-fall growth periods showed remarkable height growth. Some seedlings are greater than 5 feet tall now, and one measured 6.3 feet (76 inches) in height. These data will be analyzed by Dr Hinesley at North Carolina State University and used to guide future restoration projects.

"We hope to plant a third pond on Aiken Gopher Tortoise Heritage Preserve this winter if we can obtain the seedlings," Stowe said. The initial planting in 2002 concentrated on the two upper ponds on Spring Branch with a few dozen seedlings planted on the perimeter of the lower third pond. A few dozen of the donated white cedar seedlings were planted on Clemson University's Sandhills Research and Education Center near Pontiac and on the Little Pee Dee River Heritage Preserve.

Atlantic white cedar has distinct flattened branchlets of soft feeling, green needles, which are minute, scale-like and overlapping, the branchlets forming a fan-shaped spray. It is capable of growing in very thick stands without getting overstressed. In these thick stands, the trees grow tall and straight, with few knots, and fairly cylindrical trucks. The species tends to grow in wet areas near blackwater streams or on other acidic, nutrient-poor sites. It seeds prolifically and at a young age from fruits resembling miniature pine cones, and the wing-like seeds are dispersed by water and wind and up north by drifting over snow. The heartwood of Atlantic white cedar is light-colored and highly prized for wood working. Similar-looking Eastern red cedar has more bristly feeling needles of two types: dark green scale-like needles that form four-sided twigs and sharply pointed awl-shaped needles. The species tends to grow on dry sites. It does best and is most common on sites rich in calcium. It is a pioneer species that often invades old fields. Birds eat the blue-gray berry-like fruits - used dry in some gourmet cooking - and as the seeds pass through the bird's gut, they are scarified, which aids germination. Eastern red cedar is often seen growing in rows in old fields, as a result of birds defecating while sitting on fences and fence posts. When it grows on open sites without competition, it is a spreading tree with lots of large branches. The heartwood of Eastern red cedar is red and aromatic.

Stowe addressed the present-day scarcity of white cedar bogs in his article "Juniper Wetlands: Disappearing Treasures" in the March-April 2003 issue of South Carolina Wildlife magazine. "Remnants of a once-widespread, forested wetland ecosystem - called Atlantic white-cedar bogs - scatter along blackwater streams throughout the Carolina sandhills," Stowe wrote. "Known locally and interchangeably as juniper, and denoted Chamaecyparis thyoides by botanists, Atlantic white cedar is a long-lived, stress-adapted, wetland tree, which when dominant, forms the cornerstone of this unique wetland community. Atlantic white cedar grows in the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains from Maine to Mississippi."

Stowe said that maps attest to juniper's once-significant role in the South Carolina landscape with place-names such as Cedar Lake, Cedar Swamp, Cedar Branch, Cedar Creek, Juniper Creek, Cedar Creek Bay, Cedar Bay and Juniper Bay. Fort Jackson and Congaree Swamp National Monument have a Cedar Creek, as does the Little Pee Dee River Heritage Preserve. Sadly, often only the name remains of the species, since much of the white cedar disappeared long ago. Some "cedar creeks," especially in the piedmont, refer to Eastern red cedar but when the word "cedar" is associated with a swampy area in the sandhills or coastal plain, it undoubtedly refers to Atlantic white cedar.

Atlantic white cedar has been reduced to a fraction of its former acreage, mostly because of fire suppression, overharvesting with little regard for regeneration, and ditching and draining of wetlands. A 1992 U.S. Department of Interior report on endangered ecosystems classified Atlantic white cedar as critically endangered, the rarest designation available. The Nature Conservancy ranks white cedar as globally endangered.

Owners of forested wetlands should consider planting Atlantic white cedar on boggy sites. Juniper offers the potential for a good investment using an interesting and attractive native tree once common along many of our blackwater streams. Planting white cedar will help protect our water supply, provide important wildlife habitat, and restore an integral part of South Carolina's heritage. The S.C. Forestry Commission has recently started raising and selling seedlings or stecklings (rooted cuttings), and planting stock is also available from our neighboring states to the north.

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Inactive Lagoon Research Moves Ahead

Dec. 26, 2003
Pork: The Business Magazine for Professional Pork Producers
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003 Vance Publishing Corp.

In a unique research study, North Carolina State University and Oregon State University researchers have completed tree planting on an old, unused manure lagoon in North Carolina. The study is looking at an alternative way to close out inactive manure lagoons. Researchers will determine if it is an environmentally friendly and economical way to “decommision” a manure lagoon.

When a lagoon is closed in a conventional way, sludge is pumped out, hauled and spread on cropland, sometimes several miles away. That’s one reason why it costs an average of $43,000 per lagoon acre to close down a lagoon in North Carolina. The net cost of filling a lagoon and planting trees should be substantially less.

The two old lagoons that will studied are on a farm owned and operated by The Hanor Company. The lagoons were “retired” from service after a new, larger lagoon was completed.

The project’s first step was to pump free liquid from both lagoons, leaving sludge in the bottom of each. Then the lagoons were filled with soil and the tops are mounded.

Hybrid Poplar saplings ½ inch to 1 inch in diameter were planted on top of a 75-foot x 90-foot lagoon. The trees are bred for this purpose and are being used successfully in decommisioning landfills and other contaminated sites. The 320 saplings were planted in rows 12 feet apart, with 16 feet between the trees. This leaves space to add other tree species in the future. The young trees were planted 4 feet deep to promote nutrient uptake. Poplar roots develop at the surface and all the way down into the soil.

The trees will take up and remove nutrients from the sludge, producing marketable wood.

After trees are harvested, researchers say the ground can be used for pasture or another agricultural activity.

Monitoring wells are installed around each lagoon. The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources will monitor the wells as trees grow in order to check their impact on groundwater.

North Carolina State’s Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center and the North Carolina Pork Council are funding the study.

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Hog Farms and the Environment: Alternatives to Lagoons

Jan. 1, 2004
The Heartland Institute, Environment News
By James M. Taylor
 © Copyright 2003 The Heartland Institute.

Brandon Howard, a 27-year-old alumnus of North Carolina State University, stands on a berm overlooking an eight-acre wetland in the middle of his hog farm. “Look at the ducks,” he says, pointing to a mother duck and several ducklings making their way through some cattails.

Wetlands like this one may well be the future of hog waste in North Carolina.

As far back as folks around here can remember, farmers have been disposing of animal waste from their hog farms by building barns with slatted floors. Waste seeps through the slats into a large underground pool of concentrated waste. The waste is then flushed through pipes into open-air lagoons elsewhere on the farm property. In the lagoons, much of the waste naturally decomposes, and what remains is sprayed onto fields as fertilizer.

Even under the best of conditions, nearby residents complain of the odor and sometimes assert that the waste in open-air lagoons is causing human health problems. When it rains, the lagoons may overflow, contaminating local groundwater. The scientific community is split on whether there is any connection between lagoons and human health.

Alternative Waste Treatment

Although lagoons may be more of a public relations problem for hog farms than a health hazard for farm neighbors, researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) are experimenting with several alternatives to lagoons. Currently, NCSU is studying a dozen alternatives, and another six experiments are close to implementation. Brandon Howard’s marsh is one of the alternatives currently being studied.

“In my situation, [the wetland project] does help,” Howard recently told the Raleigh News & Observer. “But what works for me might not work across the street. ... If you manage a lagoon properly, no other system is going to work better or be cheaper to build.”

That, in a nutshell, is the problem: Lagoon alternatives are too costly for family farmers to install.

Howard accepted the offer to build a wetland on his property because it was paid for by NCSU. Without university funding, the wetland would have cost him $400,000, versus $60,000 to build a lagoon.

“We’re the guys who have got to implement whatever they come up with,” said Bundy Lane, chairman of the local Frontline Farmers environmental committee. “If it was easy to trump the thing [lagoon treatment], one of us farmers would’ve figured it out by now.”

“Ridiculously expensive, is how I describe it [the wetlands alternative]. You couldn’t turn enough pigs to justify the expense of the system,” added Howard.

That is, if you’re a family farmer.

Advantage of Corporate Farms

North Carolina in the nation’s second leading producer of hogs, yielding 9.6 million hogs per year. Nearly all of the hogs are raised on family farms, which work under contract for such packing companies as Smithfield Foods and Premium Standard Farms.

Times may be changing, however. To reduce costs and offer a more competitive food product, the large packing companies are looking to raise their own hogs on large corporate farms. Cutting out the middle man and taking advantage of economies of scale, the packers will be able to sell pork to consumers at a lower price.

With more efficient hog production, corporate farms should be able to afford many of the expensive technologies being studied at NCSU and elsewhere to protect the environment and the health of farm-area residents. Consumers win by paying less for food; rural non-farmers win because their environment is better protected; and the packing companies win by streamlining their operations. But family farmers--who have tremendous political influence in North Carolina and other hog-producing states--lose.

As politicians debate the fate of hog farming in North Carolina and elsewhere across the nation, lagoons and the hog-farming industry are coming under increasing public scrutiny. The lagoon problem is weighing so heavily upon North Carolina residents that the state legislature passed a bill in April 2003 asserting the state can’t handle any more hogs until 2007--quite a bold statement considering the importance of hog farming to the state’s economy. The bill was signed into law on June 27 by Governor Michael Easley.

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Briefly in agriculture: Hog manure

Dec. 23, 2003
Iowa Farm Bureau
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003 Iowa Farm Bureau.

Researchers at North Carolina State University think they have come up with an environmentally friendly way of cleaning hog lagoons—poplar trees. The trees grow fast and can metabolize about 3,000 gallons of waste per day.

Researchers are working with Oregon researchers, and they estimate the trees could cut the cost of cleaning up a hog lagoon by one-half.

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NSF BOARD APPROVES NANO INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK

Dec. 22, 2003
Small Times: Big News in Small Tech.
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003 Small Times.

Dec. 22, 2003 – The National Science Board, the 24-member policy advisory group for the National Science Foundation, has authorized a fund to create a National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) composed of 13 university sites that will form an integrated system of national facilities for nanoscale science and research.

The NNIN, expected to launch in January, will be led by Cornell University. Other member universities are Georgia Institute of Technology; Harvard University; Howard University; North Carolina State University; Pennsylvania State University; Stanford University; the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Michigan; the University of Minnesota; the University of New Mexico, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Washington.

Goals for the network go beyond academic research. They will also include educational efforts involving students from kindergarten through high school as well as industry outreach activities.

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Scientists: Santa may ride 'relativity cloud' on annual jaunt

Dec. 24, 2003
Knight Ridder News Service, Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Voice of America, Des Moines Register, Oklahoma City Oklahoman, (Phoenix) Arizona Republic, Sacramento Bee, Memphis Commercial-Appeal, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Minneapolis Star, Providence Journal, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Denver Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mobile Register, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, Indianapolis Star, Albuquerque Tribune, El Paso Times, Fresno Bee, Honolulu Advertiser, Youngstown Vindicator, Myrtle Beach Sun-News.The News-Leader (Springfield, MO)
By Seth Borenstein
 © Copyright 2003 Knight Ridder.

WASHINGTON — Scientists think they have figured out how Santa Claus does it.

Santa can zip around the world at a speed that — according to Einstein's theory of relativity — should turn Rudolph's nose a blurry blue or warp time and space.

Scientists calculate that Santa may be aided by computer-generated trip planners, antennas to read kids' brainwaves and nanotechnology that can make toys from cookies or dirt.

For the past several years, a handful of holiday-hearted physicists, engineers and biologists have theorized as to just how Kris Kringle performs his yearly Christmas miracle while obeying the laws of physics. They've come up with different explanations for how fast Santa moves, how his reindeer fly, how Santa fits down chimneys and how he makes presents.

Larry Silverberg, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University, came up with the most detailed answer to an engineering challenge "that seems almost impossible."

The key to Santa's travel is what Silverberg calls "a relativity cloud," in which Santa learned how to bend time, space and light — essentially making clocks run much slower for him than for the rest of us. This enables Santa to travel to more than 75 million homes in 24 hours that feel like six months to Santa.

To help Santa travel more efficiently, mathematicians came up with the best route to tens of thousands of cities. In September, Danish computer scientist Keld Helsgaun came up with a route that is 99.9 percent efficient for 1.9 million cities worldwide.

Getting Santa down a chimney is another challenge. Harvard chemical physicist Dudley Hersch-bach figures gravity would take Santa down at a painful 30 mph, but Santa's jelly belly might act as a brake. He might use an electronic winch to pull himself back up.

Silverberg also said Santa may be able to figure out what toys children want by using underground antennas — several square miles in size — that read children's brainwaves, like super-evolved EKGs.

And instead of carrying bags loaded with presents, Santa could use nanotechnology — an emerging field of molecule-sized engineering — to turn cookies or dirt and debris into toys, Silverberg said.

It all may sound fantastic, Silverberg acknowledged, but: "We know this kind of stuff is possible."

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New research affirms seniors' mental abilities

Dec. 22, 2003
Boston Globe, Orange County Register, Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, Dallas Morning News, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Sun-Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Toronto Globe & Mail, Akron Beacon-Journal, Albany Times-Union, Arizona Republic, Detroit News, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Omaha World, Cincinnati Post, Orlando Sentinel, Calgary Sun, Knoxville News-Sentinel, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Tampa Tribune, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Columbia State, Fargo Forum, Palm Beach Post, Tucson Citizen.
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003.

It is one of the greatest fears of aging: losing the ability to think quickly, remember accurately, and reason clearly. Years of laboratory testing indicate that these skills decline beginning in young adulthood.

But a growing body of research is challenging the depth of this deterioration and its impact, suggesting that most healthy seniors can work, drive, and live independently well into their golden years.

"Older adults function much better in life than we give them credit for," said Thomas M. Hess, a psychology professor at North Carolina State University who has conducted some of the new research. "It's providing a more realistic picture of what happens when people age."

The research indicates that testing conditions have exaggerated some of the mental declines, and that many older adults compensate easily for the modest changes in their brains with greater vocabulary and world knowledge.

In Hess's studies, for example, seniors performed dramatically better on memory tests after they were given information that challenged stereotypes about memory loss in aging. In one study that tested the ability to remember a list of words, seniors narrowed the gap between themselves and college students from 15 to 3 percent, he said, apparently because expectations were raised and they were put at ease by knowing their performance would not reflect badly on seniors.

Testing in the morning, when many older people are sharpest, halved differences between age groups on other memory tests, according to the work of Lynn Hasher, chairwoman of the psychology department at the University of Toronto.

Several researchers have also found that older adults outperform the young in reading comprehension when the material to be read and remembered is relevant to their lives. And seniors performed just as well as young adults in reasoning tests when the problems to be solved had real-world significance and an emotional element, according to work by Fredda Blanchard-Fields, a psychology professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

"This work is going to allay a lot of the fears," said Blanchard-Fields. "When placed in a real-world working context, there's more that older adults can draw on to do as well or better [than young adults] given their wealth of experience. Society underestimates the competency of older adults and older workers."
Ellen Feingold believes she is an example of how well many seniors compensate for some deficits. At 73, she runs Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly, an 80-person, $14 million nonprofit agency in Brighton. She just cochaired a national commission appointed by Congress to study housing and health facility needs of seniors and serves on the boards of several national organizations.

"I'm a person who never had a good memory," Feingold said. "As I get older, people giggle at it, but I don't think it's much worse. I don't think I'm as good at multitasking. On the other hand, my ability not to see every immediate crisis as a crisis has increased. I can work with people nobody else can work with. I'm a good example of how experience far trumps any loss of nuts-and-bolts skills."

Researchers stress that some deficits remain real. Most seniors do take longer to learn new information and are less able to perform multiple mental tasks at once. Learning a foreign language at age 60 remains much more challenging than at age 20. In addition, older adults with dementia, untreated diabetes, or other illnesses that affect mental capacity will experience significant declines that are likely to make their lives difficult.

But for others, gains in vocabulary and wisdom, which researchers have documented into the 70s, work well to offset most difficulties.

"Cognition is vulnerable to aging, but knowledge is the great protector," said Denise Park, director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Park has spent years documenting a steady mental decline from young adulthood on in key areas, but welcomes the new work putting the deterioration in context. "We need to recognize that processing does decline but there's this other marvelous part of our cognitive system that continues to thrive and expand."

Much of the new work has been funded by the National Institute on Aging. Molly Wagster, the NIA official who oversees this area, says the research is showing the flexibility of the older brain.

"And there may be things that can be done -- environmental or perhaps dietary interventions that could stimulate a positive reaction in the brain," she said.
While the brain does lose cells with age, recent physiological research shows it can grow new cells and add new connections among brain cells that can overcome other deficits. Scientists are finding that both mental exercise and aerobic physical exercise speed this process. In addition, good nutrition, including fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants, appears to help, as does reducing stress, getting enough sleep, and keeping socially active.

Studies that follow individuals for years demonstrate the gradualness of their mental declines. For example, people over 55 given a list of 20 words to remember showed an average memory loss of about one-tenth of a word per year, said Elizabeth Zelinski, who oversaw the study as director of Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California. While studying the same group of adults for 16 years, Zelinski and her colleagues found many individual differences and that abilities did not decline in lockstep.

Some of the declines may also be a sign of the mind successfully adapting to changes in the brain, according to Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University. Her research has found that older people remember emotionally salient information a lot better than neutral or irrelevant information. She suggests that they're triaging, focusing on what's emotionally important, rather than struggling to remember everything. Within a familiar context, such as a longstanding job, these deficits may make little difference, Carstensen said. Cambridge attorney William Landau says he hasn't noticed any deficits and finds his work no more mentally challenging at 73 than it was two decades ago. He works alongside his father, now 100, who comes into the office every day to work on trusts and estates.

"I'm still working, still dealing with the public, still functioning as well as I always have," said the younger Landau. "I'm trying to slow down because I want to have more free time, but I don't feel I'm getting old at all. I recently told one of my clients that I'm not going to be taking any of his new cases. He said, `That's OK, I'll use your father.' "

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Thompson fulfills promise to mom

Dec. 26, 2003
Rocky Mountain News, Seattle Post Intelligencer, San Francisco Examiner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Salt Lake City Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger, Tulsa World, Boston Herald, Buffalo News, Toledo Blade, Baton Rouge Advocate, Vero Beach Press-Journal, Lakeland Ledger.
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003.

David Thompson once made a promise to his mother Ida. A dozen years after her death, he fulfilled it.

Thompson, a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest players in Denver Nuggets history, walked down the aisle at North Carolina State University last week. More than 28 years after leaving school, he finally received his college degree in sociology.

But there was even more to this special moment. At the same time, Erika, Thompson's 24-year-old daughter, also received her degree from North Carolina State.

"(The family has) been telling him for years to go back and get his degree," Erika said. "I didn't know if it would happen. But I guess he got competitive and wanted to get his degree before me."

Thompson, 49, is not shy about letting it be known that he finished his degree requirements during the first session of summer school. Erika completed her requirements in film studies during the summer's second session.

When Thompson, who led the Wolfpack to the NCAA title in 1974, left campus after his senior season of 1975, he was two classes short of his degree. He said playing in the World University Games in summer 1974, when he couldn't attend summer school, and playing in a six-game tour with the Russian national team in fall 1974, got him behind in his studies.

Then came spring 1975. Thompson was picked No. 1 in the NBA draft by Atlanta but elected to sign with the Nuggets, then in the ABA.

Thompson thought about going back to school in the summer during his playing days, but it never happened. Thompson played with Denver in the ABA for one season and in the NBA with the Nuggets from 1976-82 and with Seattle from 1982-84.

Thompson spent the latter part of his career and the late 1980s battling drug addiction. But he has been sober for 15 years.

Thompson worked in community relations with the Hornets when they played in Charlotte, N.C., from 1989 through 2002. When they bolted for New Orleans, Thompson figured it was a good time to attend to unfinished business.

"I had always promised my mother that I would get my degree," said Thompson, who continues to live in Charlotte. "I did it through a direct studies program at N.C. State. I could do it in Charlotte, although I made a few trips to (Raleigh)."

It was a big deal when Thompson arrived onstage to receive his degree. Flashbulbs popped. Television cameras followed him down the aisle.

"It felt great," Thompson said. "There was a big party for me after the graduation. It's something I wanted to do for me and my family. A college degree is something everybody needs to get."

It was bittersweet that Ida Thompson, who was 74 when she died in 1991, was unable to see her son graduate. Thompson also expressed sadness that his college coach, Norm Sloan, was not there.

Sloan died of cancer Dec. 9. But Thompson did have a chance to speak with him several times in the weeks before his death.

"I'm just happy coach Sloan knew about me getting my degree before he died," Thompson said. "He was real proud of me. It was a terrible loss. I talked to him a few days before he passed and saw him about two weeks before at an N.C. State-Maryland football game. He was on oxygen and had gotten a lot weaker. One of the final things he wanted to do was come to my graduation, but he didn't make it."

Now Thompson is ready to move on to the next phase of his life. He has had conversations with the expansion Charlotte Bobcats, who begin play next season, about a job.

He might want to send the team an updated resumé. One with an extra line under "Education."

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Job losses, bank merger top N.C. business stories for 2003

Dec. 27, 2003
Associated Press, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, Kiplinger.com, Lexington Herald Leader, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Wayne News Sentinel, Winston-Salem Journal, Wilmington (N.C.) Star, Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, Columbia State, Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger, Gainesville Sun, Gadsden (Ala.) Times.
By Paul Nowell, staff writer
 © Copyright 2003 Associated Press.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - In one fell swoop, textile maker Pillowtex Corp.'s bankruptcy put nearly 5,000 people out of work in North Carolina, a swift loss that underscored the slow decay of the state's old-line manufacturing sector.

Only a few months later, Bank of America Corp. stunned Wall Street by bidding $47 billion to buy the assets of FleetBoston Financial Corp., New England's largest bank, and extend its prodigious footprint into one of the most affluent regions of the country.

It's a toss-up whether the staggering job losses that continue to plague traditional industries such as textiles, furniture, tobacco and apparel beats the Bank of America-Fleet Financial merger as North Carolina's top business story in 2003.

The pending merger, which is easily North Carolina's biggest "new economy" story this year, could herald the start of another wave of consolidation in the U.S. banking industry.

Manufacturing layoffs generated more headlines in 2003, but experts said the merger will mean more to the state down the road.

"The bank merger is a more important event in the long run than the Pillowtex closing, which is not to say that was not a painful thing for the workers and their families," said North Carolina State University economist Michael Walden. "It's troubling, but not unexpected, and a continuation of a trend of downsizing in manufacturing."

Gary Shoesmith, an economist at Wake Forest University, said choosing the top business story for 2003 in North Carolina was a close call.

"The manufacturing losses are old news," he said. "There's nothing surprising about that, while the bank merger is very important to Charlotte and the bank."

To Shoesmith, one of the most intriguing developments was how uneven the economic recovery has been in North Carolina.

"There's a large disparity between the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point) and rural areas that are impacted by manufacturing job losses, and Charlotte and the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill), where the economic engine continues to perform well," he said.

As the year drew to a close, state lawmakers in Raleigh held a special session to try to jump start the state's sagging manufacturing sector. They approved millions of dollars in incentives and tax breaks to lure drug maker Merck & Co. Inc. and encourage R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to add jobs.

RJR, which cut 1,700 positions in the Winston-Salem area in the fall, plans to add 800 to 1,000 jobs as part of its merger with Brown & Williamson, the No. 3 cigarette company.

Hardly a week went by in 2003 without a round of layoffs, including RJR's announcement in September that it was cutting 40 percent of its total work force in a sweeping restructuring. Most of the cuts were in the Winston-Salem area.

"At the national level, the rate of job losses is much slower," Shoesmith said. "We're not done here. Wait for furniture to swallow its medicine."

Layoffs also hit Charlotte's Duke Energy Corp., which cut thousands of jobs and changed much of its management leadership in 2003 as the global energy company tried to right itself after several years of disappointing results.

On Nov. 1, turnaround specialist Paul Anderson took over as chairman and chief executive, replacing Rick Priory, who had led Duke Energy during one of the toughest periods in its nearly 100-year history.

Duke has said it intends to slash about 2,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its work force, and should post a lower-than-expected annual profit after reporting a 79 percent drop in its third-quarter earnings.

By contrast, Bank of America's march up the East Coast into New England was a move in the right direction. Wachovia Corp. and BB&T also made some strategic acquisitions in 2003, but none to compare with Bank of America's planned takeover of FleetBoston.

Walden said the deal makes a lot of sense.

"If Bank of America really wants to go nationwide, it needs to be as diversified as possible," he said. "Now it can balance one region of the country off another. For example, if the Southeast economy is not doing well, the bank can make a profit if the Northeast is doing better."

Bank of America and Wachovia had some of their own problems in 2003, getting caught up in a widening mutual fund scandal involving allegations that fund managers benefit from improper trading, often at investors' expense.

Other top business stories of 2003 in North Carolina:

_ Wachovia Corp. and Prudential Financial Inc. combined their retail brokerage operations, creating one of the nation's largest brokerage firms with client assets of more than $530 billion.

Wachovia, the nation's fourth-largest bank with headquarters in Charlotte, will own 62 percent of the new firm while Prudential will own the remaining 38 percent.

_ Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, the state's largest health insurer, admitted it denied or underpaid about 140,000 emergency room claims over five years, earning the largest fine levied against an insurance company in the state.

Blue Cross turned over a check for $1.825 million after the Chapel Hill-based insurer and Insurance Commissioner Jim Long agreed on a settlement that avoided a public hearing and a potential penalty of up to $140 million.

_ In November, parties settled a $3.2 billion lawsuit filed by Eric Hunter, a co-founder of Cree Inc., who accused his brother and other company executives of violating securities fraud and breaching fiduciary duties.

The Durham company makes silicone carbide semiconductor wafers used to make low-voltage, light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.

The case caused Cree's stock to lose about a third of its value during the summer, prompted more than a dozen class-action lawsuits by disgruntled investors _ many of which remain unresolved _ and led the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to begin an informal inquiry.

_ Burlington Industries, once the world's largest textile maker, emerged from nearly two years of Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization as a private company. Financier Wilbur Ross, chairman of WL Ross & Co., said the company's $614 million buyout of the struggling textile firm was complete. Ross hinted he might merge Burlington with Cone Mills Corp., which he was in the process of acquiring as the year closed.

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Nanoscale devices called nearly fit for fabrication

Dec. 18, 2003
EE Times
By R. Colin Johnson, staff writer
 © Copyright 2003 EE Times.

PORTLAND, Ore. — As downsized silicon devices approach nanometer dimensions, single-molecule memory cells challenge conventional wisdom.

Today every micron-size capacitor in a DRAM cell is fastidiously refreshed every millisecond just to guarantee that bleeding electrons don't float the voltage past the boundary between zero and one. If that's the case, how often will individual molecules and single-electron devices need refreshing? Will nanoscale devices retain the same properties of their micron-size brethren? Will such organic molecules even be able to survive the high temperatures of semiconductor fabrication?

Researchers are attempting to answer these questions by carefully characterizing single-molecule devices. While no one is yet claiming that nanometer-size single molecules are ready to replace micron-size DRAM capacitors, some results suggest that it won't be long before molecular-size devices can be fabricated into reliable memories. “I don't think anybody is saying we can get error-free performance from a single-molecule device, but we are finding that collections of them can be integrated into reliable semiconductor memory devices,” said Randy Levine, president and chief executive officer of ZettaCore Inc., a Denver startup specializing in molecular memories.

Recently, ZettaCore founding scientist Jonathan Lindsey, who remains a professor at North Carolina State University (Raleigh), released results showing that molecular memories have charge-retention times several orders of magnitude longer than DRAMs (minutes vs. milliseconds), can withstand extreme temperatures (400°C) and can undergo as many as a trillion read-write cycles.

Separately, University of Arkansas professors Huaxiang Fu and Laurent Bellaiche recently reported simulation results that indicate individual nano-scale ferroelectric devices can also be harnessed reliably as semiconductor memories.

“Ferroelectricity is caused by atomic off-center displacements resulting from a delicate balance between short-range covalent and long-range Coulomb interactions. Consequently, many researchers speculated that the effect would disappear at the nanoscale,” said Bellaiche. “But our results show that large, robust off-center displacements exist in quantum dots as small as 5 nanometers.”

Bulk ferroelectric materials spontaneously form into nanoscale dipoles, enabling them to transduce electricity. However, Bellaiche said, many doubted that such materials would retain their ferroelectric properties at the nanoscale. To find out, Fu and Bellaiche examined barium titanium oxide in 5-nm-diameter nanoparticles (called quantum dots because of the predominance of quantum confinement effects in particles so small).

They found the ferroelectric transducing effect still present at 5 nm, albeit in slightly less efficient form. Instead of forming long chains, Fu and Bellaiche said, the nanoscale ferroelectric forms into small magnetic vortexes. However, by applying a magnetic field, Fu and Bellaiche were able to “unravel” the vortexes and achieve performance comparable to that of bulk ferroelectrics.

Engineers doubting that molecular-size devices can attain the kind of reliability to which chip makers aspire should pay heed to ZettaCore's Lindsey, who together with fellow founding scientist David Bocian, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, and his student assistants Zhiming Liu and Amir Yasseri, tested real molecular devices.

“Engineers have been worried that organic molecules are too fragile to withstand the high temperatures of semiconductor processing and the constant read/write cycling necessary to refresh memories made from them. But I think