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NC State University News Clips for December 18-20, 2004

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.

IN-STATE CLIPS

N.C., Virginia officials had different Dell job estimates
Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics

State took rosier view of Dell jobs
Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics

State jobless rate rises
Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics

Coming Up in Business
Mike Walden, agricultural and resource economics; Timothy Hatcher, adult and community college education

NATIONAL & REGIONAL CLIPS

Click here to be taken to the CLIP ARCHIVES

N.C., Virginia officials had different Dell job estimates

Dec. 20, 2004
Associated Press; Charlotte Observer; Greensboro News & Record; News & Observer; WCNC; Wilmington Morning Star; Winston-Salem Journal; Denton Record Chronicle, TX; Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX; WVEC, VA
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

North Carolina officials said they believed that the Dell Inc. computer-assembly plant coming to the state would create nearly twice as many jobs as officials in Virginia, which was the chief rival for the project, the Raleigh News & Observer reported yesterday.

Gov. Mike Easley's administration says that 8,086 people will find new work in North Carolina because of the decision by Dell. Virginia officials put the total number of jobs created by the plant at 4,113 for their evaluations, according to documents reviewed by the News & Observer.

The numbers in both states include both full- and part-time jobs.

Dell, the world's largest computer-maker, is expected to announce its exact plant location as soon as this week.

The N.C. General Assembly, hoping to land thousands of jobs for unemployed workers, last month approved $242 million in tax breaks and other incentives over 20 years for Dell. The deal was one of the largest tax-incentive packages ever offered by the state and added to the debate about incentives.

In addition to state incentives, local governments in the Triad are offering Dell packages that range from $12 million to $37 million worth of incentives.

In Virginia, records show, the combined state and local incentives offer was $33 million to $37 million.

Both states defended their overall job predictions.

North Carolina arrived at 8,086 new jobs by using an accepted and reliable national model, said Linda Weiner, an assistant secretary of the N.C. Commerce Department.

"Ours is the best, the most solid, the best-researched estimate there is," she said.

"You could get 10 economists in a room and get 10 opinions on whether it is good, bad or indifferent," she said.

In Virginia, officials used the same national model as North Carolina, though it led to a lower overall number.

One reason is that the model takes into account differences in each state's mix of industries.

"There was concern among us about North Carolina having different numbers," said Ann Battle, a senior economist with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, a state authority that led the Dell recruitment.

"We knew there were different numbers. We went back and made sure we were comfortable with what we were coming up with. We did and we were."

There is no doubt that Dell will create many jobs inside the factory, and plenty more nearby.

To get the tax breaks, Dell must create at least 1,200 full-time jobs. The company told North Carolina officials to count on 1,300 jobs at the plant, 200 more in an expansion in five years, an average of 300 temporary jobs and 555 jobs at suppliers near the plant.

When North Carolina added the numbers, officials arrived at a figure of 2,355 workers directly associated with the plant.

Virginia officials used a lower figure of 1,680 new jobs directly tied to the plant.

"Good people can debate about these calculations," said Mike Walden, a professor of economics at N.C. State University who reviewed the state's estimates.

Andrew Brod, an economics professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro hired by local governments to assess Dell, calculated that Dell would create 4,911 to 6,320 new jobs in Guilford County if the plant were built there.

Regardless, the new jobs will be welcome.

"We've got to not lose sight that even 4,000 or 5,000 people would be tickled to death to get work," said state Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, who supports the deal.

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NC State Veterinary hospital in search of canine blood donors

Dec. 19, 2004
News 14 Carolina
By Jamie French
© Copyright 2004

It's not uncommon for the American Red Cross to call on volunteers to donate blood. For the first time, the North Carolina State Veterinary Teaching Hospital is seeking the community for canine blood donors. The hospital cares for the most seriously ill and injured dogs referred by area veterinarians.

Rebel is a regular blood donor at North Carolina State's Veterinary Teaching Hospital. His owner, Beth Fox is an intensive care unit technician the hospital and sees first hand the difference a blood donation can make. That's why all three of her dogs are donors.

She said, “It's so worth it! I mean working in the intensive care unit, I've literally seen dogs that are on death's door that have been saved from blood."

Until now, the hospital mostly relied on staff member's dogs as donors. But the demand for blood has increased with the growing number of owners willing to pay thousands of dollars for life-saving measures for their pets. That's why for the first time they're reaching out to the community and asking dog owners to bring in their dog in to give blood.

Dr. Bernie Hansen, the Director of the small animal intensive care unit said, “Blood is truly the gift of life. We treat a lot of patients that are really beloved members of the family. Many of our clients don't have children and their pets really are surrogate children and mean the world to them."

To be considered, donor dogs should have a good temperament, weigh more than 50 pounds, must be between the ages of 1 and 5, and have a clean health history. They should also be able to serve as donors for up to three years. Potential donors will be blood typed and checked for infectious diseases. Those who are evaluated as "universal donors" will receive a thorough health care screening. If the if tests are positive the dog may become a donor.

Fox added, “Usually the first time is the most traumatic because they're like ‘what's going on!’ But, after that they settle down and pretty much know, even the most excitable ones are like 'Okay, I know what's going on here!'"

The donation process is done every 2 months, is painless and involves a local anesthetic. The blood is used for surgeries and bloods transfusions.

As to whether or not Rebel actually knows she is potentially saving 4 lives? Fox said, "You kind of wonder. Because, I mean, here she is and I'm not doing anything to her and she's just sort of laying here. Sort of like when you go and give blood you know you helping someone else."

Rebel's reward wasn't milk and cookies; rather, some canned dog food, which for her is a special treat.

The veterinary hospital offers incentives to pet owners who sign their dog up to donate blood. The benefits could save owners between $350-500 in vaccinations, health care screenings, and blood work a year. And, blood transfusions, each of which can cost as much as $300 are provided free for the life of the pet.

The hospital is looking for about 40 canine donors. If you're interested in signing up your dog please call 919-513-6030.

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State took rosier view of Dell jobs

Dec. 19, 2004
News & Observer
By J. ANDREW CURLISS
 © Copyright 2004

North Carolina holds a vastly more optimistic view than Virginia about how many jobs a costly new Dell Inc. computer assembly plant would create, records show.

Officials in Virginia, the state described by North Carolina lawmakers as the chief rival for the Dell plant, estimated it would create roughly half the jobs that North Carolina is banking on.

Gov. Mike Easley's administration says 8,086 people will find new work in North Carolina as a result of the decision by Dell.

Virginia officials put the total number of jobs created by the plant at 4,113 for their evaluations, according to documents reviewed by The News & Observer.

In both states, officials acknowledged, the numbers include both full- and part-time jobs.

Dell, the world's largest computer maker, is expected to announce its exact plant location in the Triad as soon as this week.

It was on the promise of landing thousands of jobs for unemployed workers that the General Assembly approved $242 million in tax breaks and other incentives over 20 years last month for Dell to build a new assembly plant in North Carolina.

The deal is one of the largest tax-incentive packages the state has ever offered. It has added new fuel to the debate about the value of using tax breaks and incentives to capture jobs.

To further sweeten the deal, local governments in the Triad are offering Dell incentives of their own, ranging from $12 million to $37 million.

In Virginia, records show, the combined state and local incentives offer was $33 million to $37 million, though officials were preparing another offer when the North Carolina plans were announced.

Both states defended their overall jobs predictions in interviews.

North Carolina arrived at 8,086 new jobs by using an accepted and reliable national model, said Linda Weiner, an assistant N.C. Commerce Department secretary.

"Ours is the best, the most solid, the best-researched estimate there is," she said. "You could get 10 economists in a room and get 10 opinions on whether it is good, bad or indifferent."

In Virginia, officials used the same national model as North Carolina, though it led to a lower overall number.

One reason is that the model takes into account differences in each state's mix of industries. The concept is that a plant in one state might cause a different ripple effect of new jobs compared with another state.

Virginia officials said they remain satisfied with an overall view that the plant would generate about 4,000 jobs. "There was concern among us about North Carolina having different numbers," said Ann Battle, a senior economist with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, a state authority that led the Dell recruitment.

"We knew there were different numbers," she said. "We went back and made sure we were comfortable with what we were coming up with. We did and we were."

Dueling predictions

There is no doubt Dell will create many jobs inside the factory, and plenty more nearby, once it is up and running.

Both states' predictions rise out of calculations that try to predict the far-reaching effects.

To get the tax breaks, Dell must create at least 1,200 full-time jobs. But the company is telling North Carolina officials to count on:

* 1,300 jobs at the plant.

* 200 more in an expansion in five years.

* An average of 300 full-time "temporary" jobs -- workers who come at peak times, then go away when business slackens.

* 555 jobs with suppliers who must be near the plant -- makers of wood pallets, foam, cardboard boxes, equipment repair companies and other service providers. Truckers who will move the parts in and take computers out are a big part of that, too.

North Carolina added them all up to arrive at a figure of 2,355 workers directly associated with the plant.

Virginia officials used a lower figure of 1,680 new jobs directly tied to the plant, based on what Dell was telling them and a more cautious approach.

It is from those starting points that economists then used varying formulas to produce the number of extra jobs that could be expected -- the additional industry, offices, restaurants and other retailers forecast to pop up because of the plant.

North Carolina officials said they are confident in their method, which relied on plugging the number into a widely used model from the IMPLAN Group of Minnesota.

Virginia used the same group as the basis for its predictions.

Two economists at IMPLAN, Doug Olson and Scott Lindall, said they would not expect to see wide variances between North Carolina and Virginia, but would not comment further.

After later discussing it with North Carolina officials, Lindall subsequently said in an interview that such jobs predictions can be "all over the board."

"It's not surprising to me," he said.

Mike Walden, a professor of economics at N.C. State University who worked with N.C. commerce officials on the estimating, reviewed some Virginia documents at The N&O's request.

He said that North Carolina's approach led to a result that is probably "on the high side" but that the state's prediction "would not be impossible" to attain.

"Good people can debate about these calculations," he said in an interview.

Commerce officials had asked Walden to look over their numbers on the day the Dell deal was approved. In an e-mail message, he applauded their work and assumptions but added that "people can argue over them."

A third view

Another estimate came from Andrew Brod, an economics professor at UNC-Greensboro, who was hired by local governments in the Triad to assess the Dell plant's jobs potential.

He calculated that Dell would create 4,911 to 6,320 new jobs in Guilford County if the plant were built there.

State officials say that Brod's estimate does not include jobs outside Guilford, so it is probably consistent with the state's overall 8,086 estimate.

Brod, in an interview, said he wasn't so sure.

"If one believes my upper boundary of 6,300, then the state's view is not an extravagant claim," he said. "But the effects do dissipate very quickly -- it doesn't continue out in big numbers across the state. From my 6,300 to their 8,100 is still a significant boost."

Lawmakers who worked on the deal said the differences are clearly substantial -- but none interviewed thought a lower jobs estimate would change the deal.

"People have lost jobs and we're creating them now," said Sen. Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat and supporter of the deal. "We've got to not lose sight that even 4,000 or 5,000 people would be tickled to death to get work."

Rep. Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat and critic of the deal, said he wishes there had been more time to scrutinize it.

"This starts to explain why Virginia's offer was nowhere near ours," he said.

Dan Gerlach, Easley's budget adviser, said the overall jobs number was constantly taken into account as the state negotiated the deal.

"Reasonable people can disagree about the number," Gerlach said. "I don't worry about that. I want to get Dell here now, and people will see what they bring and that will help erase all the mystery here."

Virginia officials also focused on the job number as part of their recruitment effort, according to their files on the project, which include several hundred pages.

North Carolina has not released its Dell file despite requests.

In Virginia, an e-mail message indicates that Gov. Mark Warner was especially interested in the ripple effect.

Va. eyes spinoffs

"Gov wants to know today ... what the spin-off benefit could realistically be from this project," wrote Liz Povar, a senior economic developer in Virginia. "My impression is that he is trying to decide how hard to play."

A follow-up memo was needed, she wrote, and it should be based on "some real projections."

That scrutiny led to the Virginia estimate of 4,113 jobs.

Battle, the Virginia economist, and other Virginia officials said they were comfortable with the number because of history, too.

Computer maker Gateway Inc. employed a peak of 2,000-plus workers at a major facility in Hampton, Va. The assembly operation shut down last year and moved to Taiwan.

"We had some experience with Gateway about what to expect around it," said Brian Kroll, an economist with the Virginia economic partnership.

Virginia officials also took notice of recent comments by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, who helped lure Dell to build a plant there five years ago while mayor of Nashville.

The plant in Lebanon, Tenn., is similar to the one planned for North Carolina.

"There was always a hope that the industry would explode and there'd be 8,000 jobs or 18,000 jobs here," Bredesen told The Tennessean, a Nashville paper, as part of an update this year on the plant. "That hasn't happened."

Holly Sears, who heads a regional economic development partnership in Lebanon, said the plant has been good for her area.

It has about 1,600 workers and she estimated another 1,600 jobs nearby as a result, not including a Sleep Inn hotel, Waffle House, Wendy's, McDonald's, Sonic and three retail strip centers at a nearby Interstate 40 interchange.

In the end, Virginia officials say their lower incentives offer was justified by its jobs estimate and resulting benefit.

In North Carolina, Easley's administration has trumpeted the plant as bringing far more.

With all those jobs coming, the governor says, Dell's benefit to North Carolina over the next two decades will be $743 million, making the incentives offered well worth it.

(News researcher Becky Ogburn contributed to this report.)

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He sorted through the Alamo myth

Dec. 19, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By SAM HODGES
 © Copyright 2004

Did Davy Crockett die fighting at the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, in which a Mexican force under Gen. Santa Anna wiped out a band of Texas separatists? Or did Crockett surrender, only to be executed on Santa Anna's orders?

This is the big enchilada controversy taken on by James E. Crisp, a history professor at N.C. State, in his thoroughly absorbing new book "Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution" (Oxford, 201 pages, $20).

For Crisp, the subject is personal. In 1955, as a third-grader in Henrietta, Texas, he was "mesmerized" by Fess Parker as Crockett in a Disney TV series.

Throughout his early years, Crisp imbibed official Texas history, especially a comic book for seventh-graders that celebrated the Anglo-American heroes of the Texas Revolution and minimized or demonized Mexicans, blacks and the Hispanic Texans called Tejanos.

Crisp went on to study history at Yale with the great C. Vann Woodward, doing a dissertation arguing that the Texas Revolution was not the result of racial antagonism between Anglo settlers and Mexicans, but the cause of it.

As a historian, Crisp has investigated whether his hero Sam Houston really gave a racist speech about Mexicans during the revolution, and whether a mulatto slave, the legendary "Yellow Rose of Texas," seduced Santa Anna in a tent at San Jacinto, contributing to the Mexicans' defeat there.

"Sleuthing the Alamo" reports on both cases, but the heart of it concerns Crockett.

From the first, accounts varied as to whether he was killed in battle or executed. Few seemed to think the latter fate reflected badly on him.

But the Disney saga and the 1960 John Wayne movie "The Alamo" both vividly suggested that Crockett fought to the last. Crockett-mania followed the Disney show, with children across the country buying coonskin caps and re-enacting Crockett's heroism. Suddenly, a lot of people were invested in the idea of Davy as unyielding.

Meanwhile, a Mexican antiques dealer had found the diary of Jose Enrique de la Pena, of Santa Anna's force. De la Pena claimed Crockett survived the battle and stoically endured torture before being executed with a few other men.

The press got hold of the story in the 1970s, thanks to a translation of the diary by librarian Carmen Perry and a book called "How Did Davy Die?" by Texas accountant and amateur historian Dan Kilgore. Perry received hate mail for her efforts. Kilgore was vilified for siding with de la Pena.

In 1994, the plot twisted again, as a New York City arson investigator with the Dickensian name of Bill Groneman wrote that the de la Pena manuscript was forged. Crisp meant merely to review Groneman's book, but ended up wading waist-deep -- no, higher -- into the controversy.

"Sleuthing the Alamo" details Crisp's adventures, including chasing down documents, checking translations and grilling a handwriting analyst.

Crisp ultimately makes a persuasive case that the de la Pena diary is authentic and credible. But "Sleuthing the Alamo" is at least as intriguing for the insight it gives into the historian's craft and the ease with which mythology can prevail over the straight story.

This well-written, surprisingly intimate book is indispensable for all who would truly remember the Alamo.

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Editorial: Out of control

Dec. 19, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

Brad Wilson's real challenge is to state legislature

Throughout North Carolina's history, ordinary citizens, using education and hard work, have been able to move from humble circumstances to leadership or wealth.

The stepping stone for that egalitarian success is broad, affordable access to quality higher education. The state Constitution requires it. Unchecked increases in tuition and fees threaten it.

That's a point Brad Wilson made well last week when he asked his peers on the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina system to reject tuition hikes for the next academic year.

It is risky to make that pledge without knowing what urgent needs might be shunted. Yet Mr. Wilson's challenge forces a worthy issue into the spotlight: By leaning more on fees and tuition and less on tax dollars to pay for higher education, North Carolina is pricing its universities out of the reach of ordinary citizens.

The state Constitution requires that "the benefits of the University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense."

Historically, that has meant citizens made significant investments in those universities, heavily supporting their enrollment needs and operations with tax dollars.

That kept tuition low -- a key factor in building the national reputation of the system's flagship universities, as well as growing others such as UNC Charlotte.

Yet in the past decade, education costs have increased faster than state funding. Enrollment is growing. Technology costs are soaring. Charging students higher tuition and fees has become one way to cover costs and continue progress.

The state's tuition remains among the lowest in the nation. But the cost of going to a state university has risen alarmingly: as much as 70 percent at N.C. State and UNC Chapel Hill, the state's two largest institutions. Fifteen of the state's 16 campuses increased tuition last year. Many chancellors are expected to seek hikes again this year to fund faculty salaries, technological improvements, libraries and other priorities.

It is time to take stock of what out-of-control costs mean in practical terms. North Carolina has pockets of affluence, but it is not a wealthy state. Increased financial aid for the poor is good, but constantly jacking up the price of college closes the door to many students with modest and middle-class means. That changes the nature of the public university system.

Mr. Wilson's challenge is really directed at the legislature, and he's right. The state must have a budget that realistically supports the needs of higher education. At the very least, the legislature must guarantee funding of enrollment growth.

Every citizen benefits from our state's excellent universities, not just students. Every citizen stands to lose if they become unaffordable. It is right to ask taxpayers to support their universities at a level that sustains excellence and keeps a college education within reach of the average North Carolinian.

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Sigma Phi Epsilon shut down at NCSU

Dec. 19, 2004
Associated Press; Charlotte Observer; Greensboro News & Record; News 14 Carolina; News & Observer; WCNC; Winston-Salem Journal; WTVD
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

N.C. State University has shut down a fraternity that hazed pledges by forcing them to run naked through the houses of other fraternities and sororities.

The hazing was the latest of several recent problems at Sigma Phi Epsilon, said John Mountz, N.C. State's director of Greek life.

The chapter's academic standing had declined, and it had not upheld the terms of the lease agreement on its university-owned house, said a letter from Sigma Phi Epsilon's national director of chapter services.

The national organization has suspended the local chapter's charter and the fraternity won't be recognized on campus in any way until the fall semester of 2005. Members who want to rejoin will need to re-apply at that time, Mountz said.

The last of about 50 fraternity members removed his belongings from the house on Fraternity Court this week.

No charges against individuals are expected to be filed.

"This is a sad thing given all the positive ways that Greek life contributes to the community," Mountz said. "It really overshadows the good."

The punishment for Sigma Phi Epsilon is more severe than the penalty handed down to NCSU's Delta Sigma Phi earlier this year. All activities at Delta Sigma Phi were suspended for the remainder of the academic year, but the fraternity's charter was not pulled.

University officials imposed the penalties after pledges were required to participate in a late-night "scavenger hunt" that violated school policies and conduct codes. Allegations of hazing at a third NCSU fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, have not yet been resolved, Mountz said. School officials are expected to announce the findings of that case soon.

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Farmers get buyout update

Dec. 18, 2004
Greenville Daily Reflector
By Ginger Livingston
 © Copyright 2004

Tobacco growers need to know their future goals, work with people they trust and spend a little money on financial planning to maximize potential financial gains from the tobacco quota buyout, experts from N.C. State University said Friday.

That advice came during a meeting at the Pitt County Agricultural Center in which representatives from N.C. State's Cooperative Extension Program discussed the status of the $10.1 billion buyout and the how the money may effect growers and quota holders. The potential benefits and risks associated with the buyout were weighing on the minds of many of the more than 200 attendees.

"I feel like we are standing on a rope in the wind," Ivan Dixon, 27, of Black Jack, who farms in partnership with his father, said. "We've got a whole lot to think about over the next few months."

"The buyout is your compensation for the end of the tobacco quota program," said Blake Brown, an extension economist. "You have to understand this is your replacement income. Please, make your decisions carefully."

The federal government established the quota system is the 1930s to control who grew tobacco and how much was produced. This assignment of poundage was called quota. The quota system kept prices high and allowed farm families throughout the South to make a living off small amounts of tobacco crop.

However, when demand for tobacco decreased, quota amounts were cut. Further reductions came because countries like Brazil started growing quality tobacco. Starting in the late 1990s farmers called for an end of the quota system to allow them to grow as much tobacco as possible.

Because quota is assigned to a farm and attached to land, it is considered real property and had become an income source for many people.

Legislation was sought to compensate quota holders and growers for the loss of that value. On Oct. 22, a $10.1 billion tobacco buyout was signed into law as part of a larger job creation act.

It's estimated 38 percent of the buyout money will come to North Carolina.

Early estimates indicate growers and quota holders here could receive $189 million, said Mitch Smith, Cooperative Extension Service Pitt County director.

The government will pay $10 for each pound of quota. In cases where quota holders rent allotments to other people to farm, $7 will go to the quota owner and $3 to the farmer who rents it.

No date has been set for when farmers and quota holders can apply for their buyout funds, Brown said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is still writing the rules for dispersing the money.

Dixon said he and his father have debated giving up tobacco farming altogether or having the younger Dixon continue tobacco production on his own.

To continue tobacco production means investing in additional equipment in the coming years, Dixon said. Father and son worry if tobacco prices without quota support will support the investment.

"We're really waiting on Philip Morris (their tobacco buyer), if they want us to grow and what they want us to grow," he said.

Gary Bullen, an NCSU economist, is studying the cost of raising tobacco.

Most farmers will spend about $1.26 per pound to raise tobacco. However, the $1.26 is a break-even amount. It doesn't include a profit for the farmer or rent he may have to pay on land, Bullen said.

"The question comes down to what profit margin am I willing to (accept to) grow tobacco," he said. "Review what your costs are and where you fit in, in this new world."

Estimates show growers need at least 2,400 pounds of tobacco per acre and a price of $1.40 per pound before earning a reasonable profit, Bullen said.

Farmers who are signing contracts this year are reporting receiving between $1.34 and $1.45 per pound, Brown said.

While tobacco farmers must now pay closer attention to their growth costs and profit margins, Bullen said research shows tobacco is still the state's most profitable crop.

The buyout has significant tax implications for farmers and quota holders, said Chuck Moore, NCSU professor emeritus.

"There's no good, easy way to say, 'Oh, here's what you do," he said.

Depending on whether the recipient is a quota holder or a producer, the individual may be faced with either paying federal income tax or capital gains tax, as well as state income tax. There could also be property tax increases as counties seek to replace the revenue being lost with quota's dissolution.

"Your tax man should become your very best friend," Moore said. "There are tax consequences galore you need to start thinking about now and not wait for the train to hit you."

Tobacco growers theoretically could be taxed at a 47 percent rate because they will pay a self-employment tax along with federal and state income taxes, Moore said.

That means a farmer receiving $3,000 a year in buyout payments would pay just over $1,400 in taxes, he said.

Individuals who own quota but don't farm will pay a capital gains tax on their buyout money. It will be important for farmers to track down the quota's value when they received it because that will be the basis for determining how much the value has grown or gained, Moore said.

If quota owners can't produce a reliable basis, the Internal Revenue Service will tax the full amount of the money they received, he said.

If individuals don't have records on their quota's value at the time they received it they can search county tax offices, real estate agents or the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Moore said.

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State jobless rate rises

Dec. 18, 2004
News & Observer
By AMY MARTINEZ
 © Copyright 2004

North Carolina's businesses hired more workers in November, though at a slower pace than the month before.

As a result, the state's seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 5 percent from 4.8 percent in October, the N.C. Employment Security Commission said Friday.

A pickup in hiring in many business sectors was partly offset by continued job losses in manufacturing, as well as an unexpected decline in professional services, a usually fast-growing segment of the economy.

Still, nearly 10,000 new people restarted their job searches, a sign that workers felt more confident about their prospects. The state has now added nearly 11,000 jobs in the past two months: 7,900 in October and 3,000 in November.

Economists said a recovery in the job market is back on track after a late-summer lull in hiring.

"We've been looking at pretty good job growth over the past several months," said Ray Owens, an economist with the Federal Reserve in Richmond, Va., which oversees a region that includes the Carolinas. "The general expectation is that job growth will continue at a moderate pace."

The unemployment rate is based on the number of people working and actively looking for work. It does not include workers who give up their searches because of a perceived lack of opportunities. As those workers restart their searches, a rise in the rate is to be expected if job growth does not keep pace.

The education and health services sector did much of the hiring last month, with 2,500 new jobs. Trade, transportation, warehousing and utilities followed, with 2,200 new jobs, while government, construction and tourism each added 1,900 jobs.

On the downside, the business and professional services sector, usually a source for new hiring, lost 1,700 jobs. Manufacturing, the hardest-hit sector of the past four years, shed 1,600 jobs, followed by information, with 700 fewer jobs.

Michael L. Walden, an economist at N.C. State University, said the decline in business and professional services jobs is somewhat troubling, though it may turn out to be a one-month blip. Perhaps more disconcerting, he said, is the state's technology sector, which still shows no signs of recovering to pre-recessionary levels.

"There's a lot of churn in that sector," Walden said. "I'd expect things to get a little better, but not a lot."

MicroMass Communications in Cary, which provides marketing services to the health-care sector, doubled its work force this year and plans to add 10 people, bringing its total to 70. The company benefits from a growing health-care sector, as well as an overall improvement in the economy, said President John Howe.

"The kinds of projects that were being canceled when people weren't feeling so confident are coming back, and that's opened up more opportunities," Howe said.

For the ninth month, North Carolina's jobless rate was below the national average, 5.4 percent. It also was down from a year ago, when the state suffered 6.3 percent joblessness.

The state will release November unemployment figures for all 100 counties Dec. 29. That's later than usual because of the Christmas holiday. Those figures will give a clearer picture of the Triangle's job market.

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NCSU frat house closed

Dec. 18, 2004
News & Observer
By TIM SIMMONS
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH -- Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity at N.C. State University has been shut down until fall 2005 after a hazing incident earlier this year.

The hazing, which required pledges to run naked in and out of fraternity and sorority houses, was the latest of several recent problems at Sigma Phi Epsilon, said John Mountz, NCSU's director of Greek Life.

A letter from Sigma Phi Epsilon's national director of chapter services said the NCSU chapter's academic standing had declined. The fraternity also had not upheld the terms of the lease agreement on its university-owned house.

The letter also noted that the streaking incidents were witnessed by staff members from NCSU's office of Greek Life.

The culmination of problems led the national organization to suspend the local fraternity's charter.

The last of about four dozen fraternity members removed his belongings from the house at 2313 Fraternity Court this week. It now stands vacant and locked, with an overturned couch in the front yard.

Although the fraternity's activities will cease, the students can return to classes and live in either university or private housing. No charges against individuals are expected to be filed.

Similar findings released Friday by the university's Office of Student Conduct mean Sigma Phi Epsilon will not be recognized in any fashion until the beginning of the coming fall semester. Current members who want to rejoin would need to re-apply at that time, Mountz said.

The university and the national chapter will require the fraternity to be alcohol-free when its rights are reinstated.

In the meantime, leaders of the national chapter must negotiate with NCSU officials over the lease payments owed the university.

"This is a sad thing given all the positive ways that Greek life contributes to the community," Mountz said. "It really overshadows the good."

The punishment for Sigma Phi Epsilon is more severe than the penalty handed down to NCSU's Delta Sigma Phi earlier this year. All activities at Delta Sigma Phi were suspended for the remainder of the academic year, but the fraternity's charter was not pulled, and its house was not closed.

University officials imposed the penalties after pledges were required to participate in a late-night "scavenger hunt" that violated school policies and conduct codes.

Allegations of hazing at a third NCSU fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, have not yet been resolved, Mountz said. School officials are expected to announce the findings of that case soon.

According to NCSU's Code of Student Conduct, hazing is defined as "any act that injures, degrades, harasses or disgraces any person." It does not require acts of physical contact or harm.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon has not been allowed to participate in any activities since the investigation began in November.

(Staff writer Todd Silberman contributed to this report.)

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Bond lashes out at GOP

Dec. 18, 2004
News & Observer
By T. KEUNG HUI
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH -- NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, speaking Friday, accused the Bush administration and the Republican Party of catering to "right wing" extremists and trying to reverse civil rights gains.

Bond said the civil rights movement is facing some of its most significant challenges ever as affirmative action is under attack and judges raise questions on how laws should be enforced. He said civil rights activists need to be more vigilant.

"Increasingly, nonwhite people are facing problems that are more difficult to fight than ever before," said Bond, chairman of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation's oldest civil rights organization.

He was in Raleigh to speak at N.C. State University's 22nd Annual Brotherhood Celebration. Bond received the Benjamin E. Mays Memorial Award, which honors an African-American who has made contributions to the United States as a scholar and humanitarian.

Bond noted that he had first come to Raleigh in 1960 with other college students to found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a key civil rights organization that planned sit-ins in segregated businesses and conducted voter-registration drives throughout the South.

Although gains have been made since the federal Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, Bond said dissatisfaction with the legislation helped the Republican Party gain a foothold in the South.

He noted that the Republicans won all the states of the old Confederacy in last month's presidential election. Bond said Republicans have reached out to "Talibanistic" elements whose idea of civil rights is being able to fly the Confederate flag beside the U.S. flag.

Black Southerners, Bond said, are just as disenfranchised as in the past because all of the South's electoral votes went to Bush.

"[Republicans] have divided more voters than in any other time," Bond said. "We have men versus women, whites versus nonwhites, straights versus gays, conservatives versus liberals, Protestants versus Jews, rural versus urban."

Bond defended the continued use of affirmative action as necessary to counter the advantages of "white privilege" that came from slavery and segregation. He said he supports slave reparations for African-Americans to level the playing field with whites.

Barbs also were aimed at the Patriot Act as an attempt to subvert civil liberties.

"There is a right-wing conspiracy," Bond said. "It controls the White House, both houses of Congress, much of the judiciary and a major part of the news media."

Bond also criticized the Democratic Party, which he accused of going along with the Republicans on the war in Iraq and on Bush's tax cuts. He said Democrats are not fighting hard enough on social issues.

"While one party has been whistling 'Dixie,' the other has been whistling in the dark," Bond said. "While there are some exceptions, they've been absent without leave."

The speech drew cheers from the 120 people at Witherspoon Student Center.

"It's good that groups such as the NAACP are out there fighting for social justice," said Amanda Ford, 22, an NCSU senior who spoke with Bond after the speech. "It looks like the government is going backward on civil rights issues."

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Grant will aid evolution studies

Dec. 18, 2004
News & Observer
By CATHERINE CLABBY
 © Copyright 2004

Evolution studies used to trace the ancestry of single organisms at a time, painstakingly mapping where they fit on the Tree of Life.

Today, new tools could vastly widen biologists' reach. If they desired, they might map all the living occupants of the North Atlantic Ocean at once, says Duke University biologist Clifford Cunningham.

Now, Cunningham and scientists from N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill can help such quests. The three universities have landed a $15 million National Science Foundation grant to create a National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham.

The center will train young scientists and bring senior scientists from different disciplines together to develop and tackle big questions. It will use computers to make it easier for all of them to access now isolated information.

"No one lab can do that," said Cunningham, the center's director, who uses DNA patterns to trace the ancestry of arthropods, such as crabs, that dwell in the sea.

The center, created at a time when principles of evolution are again under fire by people outside science, will steer clear of politics. But it will strategize good ways to educate policymakers and schoolteachers about evolution's findings.

Scientists working with the center will attempt to look forward as well as back. Biologists have great interest in adaptations in organisms, the cornerstone of evolution, that occur quickly. Some are bad, but some are good.

For instance, scientists would love to slow down the rate at which insects become resistant to pesticides or other controls in farm fields, Cunningham said. And they would like to speed up the process that permits animal breeders to create better livestock.

Like everyone in science, evolution researchers need strategies to make the most of the huge amount of data streaming out of molecular and more traditional research labs.

"There is so much information. How do you put it together?" said Joel Kingsolver, a UNC biologist and the associate director at the center.

The hope is that people who don't always work together -- biologists, physicians, paleontologists, crop scientists, computer scientists and others -- will develop good answers to that question.

The action starts soon. The center is scheduled to open in January.

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Tobacco meeting scheduled

Dec. 17, 2004
Greenville Daily Reflector
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

Information on the federal tobacco buyout program will be available at a half-day program today at the Pitt County Agricultural Center.

The event, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., will feature specialists from the N.C. State University Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. No pre-registration is required.

Economist Blake Brown will provide a status update and overview of the buyout program. Gary Bullen will discuss the economics of tobacco production with a focus on the cost of production and Guido van der Hoven will present information to help farmers determine if they should receive their buyout payment in a lump sum or opt for a 10-year payment program.

Call 902-1700 for more information.

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Dreams to Reality

Dec. 18, 2004
Winston-Salem Journal
By J. James DeConto
 © Copyright 2004

When he was 16, Silvestre Gonzalez swam the Rio Grande and came to America. He ended up in Ashe County in 1990, working in the Christmas-tree industry.

He is still there, holding two jobs. He is a crew leader at a large commercial operation, and he is also the proud owner of 50,000 trees on 37 acres.

"We came from the poor place in Mexico," Gonzalez said. "That's why I like to work and save my money, grow some Christmas trees, because I think it's a pretty good business."

Across the mountains, similar stories are slowly taking root. Here and there, the immigrants from Mexico who came to rural areas to work on other people's tree farms are becoming owners. It's a story as old as America, repeated with variations through time.

"It's a natural progression. What you're seeing with these guys is just a snapshot of the future," said Jim Hamilton, a Cooperative Extension Service agent with N.C. State University who has studied immigrant labor in the Christmas-tree industry.

"They're living the American dream," said Fred Hudler of Hudler Carolina Tree Farm. Two of his employees, Bonificio and Jorge Ledezma, together own about 30,000 Christmas trees.

Mexican workers started migrating to the mountains in the 1980s, and by the mid-1990s many had brought their families to live here, creating a permanent Hispanic population that wanted to improve their lives.

Most workers earn $6 to $8 an hour working at tree farms, and they are well aware of the $4 to $5 profit margin for each tree.

Hispanic immigrants are generally entrepreneurial, and many have started their own construction companies, said Stella C. Dreyer, the executive director of the N.C. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. But tree farmers are still pretty rare.

North Carolina's 2,000 Christ-mas-tree growers produce about 5 million trees each year, accounting for more than $110 million in sales, second only to Oregon.

Within five years, Gonzalez hopes to have 36,000 Fraser firs ready for harvest. This first crop could gross more than $600,000 in revenue, though the threat of a flooded market makes the future cloudy.

"Maybe someday I'll have some money to help my family a little better," Gonzalez said. "That's what I hope."

Gonzalez works eight-hour days, Monday through Saturday, for Grouse Ridge Farms, a large commercial operation. He tends his own trees in the evenings and on Sundays.

"I just come home, drink some orange juice, and I go to my own trees till dark," he said. "I try to do all my work, so that way I don't have to pay much help."

"We're so proud of him," said Debbie Fishel, who started Grouse Ridge with her husband, Sanford, in 1981. "He's never borrowed one piece of equipment from us.... He's totally independent with it."

Since he doesn't own a tractor, he has to hire a crew for planting, and each tree costs about $1 to set. Once or twice a year, he spreads grains of fertilizer by hand over every acre. Then there's mowing and spraying for weeds and pests.

The Gonzalez Tree Farm is a big commitment, not only of time, but also money. During his years with the Fishels, Gonzalez's pay has climbed from $5.50 to $12 an hour plus a free apartment. It's one of the highest wages in the industry. But he and his wife, Olga, have to be frugal. They saved $50,000 to plant their seedlings. They spend about $3,000 a year leasing 30 acres of farmland and more than $2,000 on fertilizer and Roundup herbicide. Plus, they make payments on a $50,000 mortgage held by the neighbor who sold them their own seven-acre plot.

"I know it's a lot of money, but it's a good way to save some money, too," Gonzalez said. "You've got your money in the pocket, in the bank, and you see a good-looking truck, you go for it. This way, you can't get the money."

Thrift has also given the Ledezmas their own Fraser fir farms. They grew up harvesting firewood from a public forest in Guanajuato, near Acapulco, and, like Gonzalez, left school after fifth grade for work. They crossed the Texas border as teenagers in 1987 and agreed to pay a Florida labor contractor $1,000 each to secure their green cards.

"He had to find us a job so we could pay him back," Jorge Ledezma said.

The contractor sent them to Ashe County, where he took $1 for every $4.50 they made each hour. About 10 years ago, they started with Hudler. They're now crew leaders.

"They could certainly be doing better somewhere else if they really wanted to," said Fred Hudler. "(Jorge) knows more about taking care of Christmas trees than anybody in the state."

After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1998, Ledezma walked into Ron Hudler's office with a backgammon board filled with $30,000 in cash and asked how to buy a house in the United States. He borrowed $15,000 from his brothers and paid $45,000 in cash for a ranch house on a few acres in central Ashe County.

Ledezma renovated the house and planted more than 2,000 Fraser firs on the hill above it. He has harvested 1,000 over the past three years, selling them for $15 each to Fred Hudler, who sells them in Michigan.

This year, Ledezma and a friend, Mariano Garcia, another worker for Hudler, cut and sold 1,000 of their 9,000 trees on a 12-acre farm in Lansing. Ledezma also planted 30,000 additional trees on Richard London's Alleghany County farm, and the two will split the profit when the trees are harvested. At that point, he plans to become his own boss.

"That's all I know how to do is grow trees, so I grow trees," Ledezma said. "I think in another 10 years, I should be in a better shape. I should be working for my own, and maybe helping some of my people, give them a little work, pay them good."

Experienced Christmas-tree workers can make up to $15 an hour, but it's estimated that two-thirds of the work force are migrants who come for the summer shearing season or fall harvest and earn $6 to $8 an hour for 50 to 80 hours a week. They are fathers or sons traveling without their families, sleep two or three to a room in dorms or trailers, and leave in early December to return to Mexico or migrate to Florida to pick oranges.

"A lot of people just get old doing the hard work," Ledezma said. "It's good, because you're making your money to live, but when you get old, what are you going to do? You can't work. So that's why I was saving hard to buy my own house and land."

Boni Ledezma, 36, is growing 2,600 of his own table-top trees for next year's harvest on a half-acre field he owns next to Jorge Ledezma's house. He leases another seven acres east of Jefferson, where he has 8,000 trees, including 2,500 premium firs as tall as 9 feet and worth as much as $40 apiece.

"I hope next year, I'm going to start making a little money," Boni Ledezma said. "It's really hard if you're just working for $7 an hour; you'll never make a lot of money.... We're trying to look and get a better life for my family here."

The brothers each have three children, ranging in age from their 11-year-old daughters to 2-year-old Jorge Jr.

"I want them to go to school, and when they finish their school, find a good job, like in a federal office or a teacher, so they can help people," Jorge said. "I don't really want my son to do what I do. It's not very safe. You know you've got to play with pesticides, herbicides. It's not really good."

From February until the massive harvest in November, the Ledezma brothers put in 40 to 50 hours a week planting trees, mowing weeds, fertilizing soil, spraying chemicals and trimming Fraser firs for the Hudlers, then work evenings and weekends on their own farms. Jorge also manages to squeeze in 20 hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays working odd jobs and says that his family lives on about $800 a month from his weekend work so he can save the income from his weekday job to invest in his farm.

"They're Americans, but they're different," Hudler said. "They don't live like all of us on our Visas and fully financed cars with 10 percent down. They don't lease things. They buy things used, and they buy smart."

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Coming Up in Business

Dec. 17, 2004
Triangle Business Journal
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

KNIGHTDALE CHAMBER ECONOMIC FORECAST – Jan. 5, Noon at the Knightdale Chamber of Commerce, 207 Main St. The Knightdale chamber is hosting a 2005 Economic Forecast lunch and learn seminar. Mike Walden of North Carolina State University will speak. $10, Knightdale chamber members; $20, non-members. For more information, call 266-4603.

ASTD MEETING – Jan. 13, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at The Solution Center in RTP. The Research Triangle are chapter of the American Society of Training and Development. Timothy Hatcher of NCSU will speak. $17.50 ASTD-RTA members; $22.50, non-members. For more information or to register, visit www.astd-rta.org.

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NSF Funds $15M Evolutionary Sciences Center

Dec. 20, 2004
LocalTechWire
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

DURHAM – Duke University will be the host to a new evolutionary science center and will work with the University of North Carolina as well as North Carolina State University thanks to a $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center will be used to study the genetics, behavior and structure of millions of different plants, humans, animals, algae and other forms of life.

Clifford Cunningham, a Duke biologist, will run the center.

“This new center will transform evolutionary biology by tackling long-standing questions in a new way through science that is collaborative, and that synthesizes results,” said Sam Scheiner, program director in NSF’s emerging frontiers division, which funded the center, in a statement.

Biologists, physicians, paleontologists, crop scientists and computer scientists will use the center.

“Information about biological evolution has exploded in the past several decades, fueled by advances in biodiversity, computation, genomics and many other fields,” said Joel Kingsolver, a biologist at UNC and the center’s associate director for science and synthesis. “Now is the time for synthesizing this information to gain a new level of scientific understanding about evolution, and to apply this understanding to important societal issues.”

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Deja vu looms over General Assembly next year

Dec. 20, 2004
Associated Press; Charlotte Observer; News & Observer; WCNC; Wilmington Morning Star; Winston-Salem Journal; WVEC, VA
By STEVE HARTSOE
© Copyright 2004

In the closing hours of the 2003-04 legislative session, House Co-Speaker Jim Black remarked that the term "began in terrible fashion and ended up with a good result."

That line may again come in handy for the Mecklenburg Democrat.

As at the start of the 2003-04 session, new and returning lawmakers who will report to Raleigh next month will face a projected budget shortfall in excess of $1 billion.

A lot of what happens in 2005-06 will depend on how solid state coffers are when tax receipts start arriving next year.

But with an election year behind lawmakers and an apparent power shift in the House, many issues that were deemed too controversial for serious debate this year will likely get their due in 2005.

"We've got some sort of leftover business as far as high-profile issues," says Andy Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University.

Among the topics likely to get serious attention in 2005:

With an eye on the election, legislators plugged this year's budget holes with one-time or temporary revenues and budget cuts, eventually settling on a $15.9 billion spending plan that secured money for many of Gov. Mike Easley's pet education projects.

Several voter-friendly bills were signed into law, including anti-domestic violence and anti-methamphetamine legislation, and a contentious school calendar bill pushed by parents and teachers.

One big difference between the opening of next year's session on Jan. 26 and the start of the 2003-04 session will be who is in charge of the state House.

Black and Republican Richard Morgan, who leads a faction of moderate Republicans, served as co-speakers for the last two years when the chamber was closely split between the two parties. But Democrats picked up five seats in the November election, and will hold a 63-57 edge next session.

This time, Black will likely run the chamber alone. He's already picked up the nomination of all 63 House Democrats, and says he has the support of some GOP representatives.

That could bode well for supporters of a death penalty moratorium, including Black, who say executions should stop to allow a study of how fairly capital punishment is dispensed.

Black and Morgan typically would not allow floor votes on bills they disagreed on or that they deemed controversial. With moratorium opponent Morgan likely out of the top power slot, supporters are confident 2005 is their year.

"I think we had enough votes last session, but a lot of measures were not brought to the floor," said David Neal of the North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium. "I think this year there's a better chance. ... A lot of the stumbling blocks are gone."

Black says a moratorium is "an issue we'll deal with one way or the other."

Another issue that has stalled in committee is a proposed tax hike on a pack of cigarettes.

Supporters say raising the nation's third-lowest cigarette tax from 5 cents to 75 cents would generate several hundred million dollars that could offset taxpayer-funded health care or other fast-rising expenses.

Black said last week he would favor using revenue from a cigarette tax hike for education.

"I think it's huge progress for the speaker to be talking about this at this stage," said Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake, who plans to introduce another bill to raise the tax.

But hungry mouths on Jones Street are already jostling for a piece of that potential revenue pie.

When Black signaled that a cigarette tax hike will be on the table, the joint Blue Ribbon Commission on Medicaid Reform was listening.

The next day, the panel recommended that the state begin phasing out counties' share of Medicaid financing over six years. That proposal would add $777.9 million in new costs to the state in 2011.

The panel listed the cigarette tax as a potential revenue source to cover that cost.

"The suggestion was if we put in a tobacco tax (hike), a portion could be used to offset costs of things we're trying to do to help take over the counties' share," said Sen. William Purcell, D-Scotland, a co-chairman of the panel.

Lawmakers also must grapple with satisfying a court order to increase the share of education money spent on the poorest districts. Poor school districts filed the suit 10 years ago, saying urban school systems were getting too big a share of the state's education resources.

The State Board of Education has estimated it will cost $220 million to fully comply with the court order in the so-called "Leandro" case.

"Leandro is sort of a big white elephant in the room as well," said Taylor.

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Durham's BioMarck taps wealthy to raise $5 million more

Dec. 17, 2004
Triangle Business Journal
By Leo John
 © Copyright 2004

DURHAM - A human protein can regulate mucus formation, giving physicians and patients a new weapon to fight respiratory diseases such as asthma and cystic fibrosis. At least, that's what 50 to 100 wealthy people in the Triangle are betting.

These individual investors together pumped $5 million into BioMarck Pharmaceuticals in early December in a Series B funding round. The company won't say exactly how many investors participated or name any of them.

The $5 million round, combined with a $1.5 million Series A round that was completed previously, will allow BioMarck to take an inhibitor it has developed based on the protein through animal trials and into early human tests.

BioMarck also has obtained $1.6 million through private and government grants.

The company expects to file an Investigational New Drug, or IND, application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - a first step before starting trials - in early February.

"Right now, the data is looking awfully good," says Allen "Fred" Gant, chief executive officer of BioMarck.

The protein at the center of the young company's work was discovered by two North Carolina State University professors of cell biology, Kenneth Adler and Linda Martin. So far, the company's inhibitor has been tested on animal cells, including those of mice, rats, dogs and monkeys. Some of Adler's findings were published in Nature Medicine, a journal focused on biomedical research, earlier this year.

"The protein exists in the body, so it is not a foreign substance," says Gant. Because the body recognizes the protein as an insider, it chooses not to reject the company's inhibitor, says Gant, a pharmaceutical industry veteran who came out of retirement to lead BioMarck.

Physicians and researchers in the field of pulmonary medicine say the finding of the "Marcks peptide," as the protein is known, is a notable discovery.

"This could be a big-time finding," says Dr. Robert Aris, a lung specialist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Yet, Aris says, it is premature to celebrate. "Many times drugs have worked on rats but not panned out in humans," he says.

Also, Aris points out that the protein "is not a disease-curing intervention but a disease-modifying intervention." That means that even if the protein works the way BioMarck thinks it will, the drug will merely inhibit some effects of diseases such as asthma and cystic fibrosis, not cure them.

Even that is useful because cures for the diseases are so far away, says Aris.

As for BioMarck's most recent funding event, Gant pitched to individual investors in two separate meetings, eventually increasing the size to $5 million from a planned $3 million to accommodate all investors.

"There were a large number of people who wanted to come in," says Gant.

BioMarck, which was founded in February 2002, has hired Durham-based contract research firm Cato Research to conduct the drug's pre-clinical and clinical trials.

Gant expects money from federal and private grants will fund future development of the drug, but he doesn't discount going back to investors.

Meanwhile, the company is scrimping on cash. The principals, including Gant and CFO Tom Roberg, get no salary. The company's only full-time employee, Chief Scientific Officer Indu Parikh, is paid a salary. All receive stock options.

Gant says BioMarck plans to partner with a bigger company to commercialize the drug.

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Editorial: Tighter screening means safer campus

Dec. 18, 2004
Greensboro News & Record
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

The 16 institutions of the UNC system are among the safest places in the state. But if your son or daughter is harmed while on campus, the statistics mean nothing.

A task force formed by UNC President Molly Broad after the murders last spring of two female UNC-Wilmington students in separate crimes recommends changes that hopefully will help identify potential troublemakers before they arrive.

The panel's suggestions tighten the admissions screening process. Starting next fall, background information will be verified, including a limited number of criminal history checks.

Only a handful of applicants purposely try to mislead or conceal criminal records. However, the deaths at UNCW underscore what can happen. In both cases, the accused had run-ins with the law before enrolling.

One of the men had lied to school officials about a sexual assault on a former girlfriend; the other had exhibited behavioral troubles in high school. Had the truth been known, neither should have been enrolled in a state university.

The task force's upgraded screening proposals target applicants who conceal arrests. For the first time, UNC system applicants will be asked directly about past criminal behavior.

If an application raises questions, a background check will be made. Names will be put through databases to verify attendance and note any high school behavioral issues. Gaps between completing high school and applying for college admission will be closely scrutinized. High school counselors also may be asked about an applicant's behavior.

Yet teenage indiscretions must be kept in perspective. Depending on the transgression, having a criminal record shouldn't automatically mean rejection. An otherwise qualified applicant should have an opportunity to explain the situation that led to criminal charges. A high school prank regretted afterward doesn't preclude being a success in college.

Not all campus crimes are committed by students. In fact, they were responsible for slightly more than half reported at state universities in the last three years. Of 250 student suspects, only 21 had arrest records and just 13 had lied about it on applications.

Even so, in light of the UNCW murders, the university system must better detect potential troublemakers to assure anxious parents that their kids will be safe on campus.

Enhanced scrutiny will have its downside. There will be additional costs. And admissions decisions may take longer. But considering the stakes, the price and inconvenience seem more than reasonable.

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Did You Know?

Dec. 20, 2004
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

Seventy-one percent of freshmen entering N.C. State University in the fall of 2003 ranked in the top fifth of their high school class. Source: Statistical Abstract of Higher Education in North Carolina, 2003-2004

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People

Dec. 20, 2004
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

H. CHRISTOPHER FREY, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, has been elected president-elect of the Society for Risk Analysis for 2005. An international multidisciplinary scholarly group, the society provides an open forum for researchers in the area of risk analysis. Frey joined the faculty in 1994.

JOHNNY C. WYNNE of Apex was named dean of the university's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Wynne has served as interim dean since May 2003.

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NCSU scientists to craft tests for plants in space

Dec. 20, 2004
News & Observer
By Catherine Clabby
 © Copyright 2004

If Americans voyage to Mars one day, as President Bush says they will, live plants would greatly aid the mission.

Trouble is, earthlings don't know how to grow crops or anything else on the red planet.

NASA has decided that four N.C. State University scientists may help teach the world how. The space agency selected the researchers to design experiments for the International Space Station that test how plants adapt to life in space.

"There are a lot of important things that we have to do" before trips to Mars are feasible, said Terri Lomax, NASA's deputy associate administrator for research. "This is one."

NASA envisions a day when plants aboard spaceships, or even in human settlements on Mars, yield what they give us on Earth: oxygen, recycled water and healthy food.

"Plants support us here on Earth, and plants will support us on Mars," said Chris Brown, director of space programs for NCSU's Kenan Institute.

Brown and three other NCSU biologists won't blast into space themselves. They are designing experiments for the space station that look for ways to build on plants' strengths.

Rooted to the ground, plants do not flee trouble. They can't. Instead, they stand their ground and try to cope.

That means when water supplies dry up, they conserve what they have. If they get knocked down, they make their leaves reach toward the sun and their roots reach toward the ground to stay alive.

"If they get that confused, they are dead," Brown said.

If the molecular mechanisms that make all that possible can be harnessed and altered, science one day might engineer plants better suited to conditions on planets far different from those on Earth, Brown said.

And boy, are other planets different.

Mars, for one, produces less than half of Earth's gravity and has an atmosphere that's nearly 95 percent carbon dioxide. Winter temperatures plunge as low as minus 180 degrees.

Lomax, the NASA administrator, said space travelers probably will have to protect plants from the most extreme conditions in special chambers. But NASA hopes to devise ways to make them better suited to the conditions.

In the space station experiments, expected to occur in about two years, Brown and his team will use Arabidopsis, a mustard weed frequently tinkered with in molecular biology labs. The scientists will ship normal weeds, as well as weeds made less sensitive to gravity. They they'll compare how the two types respond to the same conditions.

Using genomics tools, they'll try to capture the molecular means the plants use to try to adapt.

"In the absence of gravity, other factors might become more important. If there is any light, is that how plants will orient?" asked researcher Imara Perera, who created the genetically modified plants for the North Carolina team.

Since the project involves space travel, uncertainty is part of the package. The North Carolina scientists can't be sure when a space shuttle can ferry their experiments to the space station.

Although the shuttle Discovery is expected to launch next year, a U.S. space shuttle has not flown since Columbia burned up in February 2003.

These are not stable times for the space station, either. Earlier this month, an American and Russian aboard the station were instructed to eat less to save their dwindling food supplies. An unmanned Russian supply ship was delayed in delivering provisions.

Still, the scientists are confident their projects will get there. NCSU biologist Wendy Boss, also on the team, said the experiments they envision could deliver insight into more than plants.

Genetic studies show that very different organisms use similar molecular mechanisms to tend to life, she said. Whatever is learned about mustard weeds may offer insight into how other creatures, including people, function.

"We need to understand the fundamental biology of all different organisms," Boss said. "They all represent different pieces of the same pie."

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Whatever happened to all the red wolves?

Dec. 19, 2004
News & Observer
By Craig Jarvis
 © Copyright 2004

The tales of Raleigh's public-art wolves are as varied as their designs. Some blended into the background -- they remain inside stadiums and in front of businesses and on campuses. Others have sauntered into back yards or other obscure corners far from the public eye.

Several have had harrowing adventures. Others are still licking wounds that came from exposure to the elements, or from vandals.

Here are some of their stories.

Grand theft wolves

At least five of the Raleigh red wolves were stolen. Fortunately, three were found -- including one in an episode right out of "Cops."

A few months after the auction, a Raleigh police officer spotted some brilliant guys carrying a wolf along Hillsborough Street. They were trying to sell it to a business in the neighborhood.

But the officer thought it looked a lot like "Where-Wolf of Raleigh," the blue, quilt-patched wolf that used to prowl in front of the offices of SAFEChild wearing red size 9-wide tennis shoes.

"He called me and asked if our wolf was missing," said Linda Raynor of the child-welfare agency. "The policeman saved the day. He put it in the police car and brought it back to us."

"Where-Wolf of Raleigh's" belly had been ripped open, and since his rescue, the wolf has been recuperating behind a fence in the agency's playground, awaiting repairs. The agency would like to put it back in public view, this time bolted to the front porch.

Another wolf-napping ended far from home.

"One of them went out drinking with the boys and made it nearly to Fayetteville," said Steve Gruber, who ran the auction.

Outfitted with snorkel, goggles and fins, "Jacques, Underwater Wolf" was taken from Moore Square downtown by a group of soldiers who had been out drinking, as Gruber heard it, and then dumped along I-95 in Cumberland County. "Jacques' " travels didn't end there, however; he came to rest in a house at Atlantic Beach.

N.C. State University sponsored several wolves during the Ramble. Various departments purchased them because of the Wolfpack thing, and most are still scattered around campus. But three were stolen, and two of them never found.

Hide and seek

A lot of the wolves are reasonably visible. There are three at the RBC Center, another at BTI, one at Brigs restaurant in North Raleigh and several at local schools.

Drive onto the Meredith College campus and there is "Alpha Female" greeting visitors at the guard shack. Art teacher Lisa F. Pearce thought the original model's droopy tail was too submissive, so she cut it off and gave it a high tail sticking out proudly like the alpha member of a pack.

"I wanted the women at Meredith to feel that their accomplishments could lead them to the top of whatever pack they chose in life," Pearce said.

The Raleigh School, a private elementary school near the RBC Center, received two wolves -- "Whisper Wolf" and "Crying" -- from the Hopkins family of the Hopkins Oil Co. "Crying" is in a well-used water garden area. "Whisper Wolf" is resting near a school building in disrepair, reports Terri Kelly-Hopkins.

"Night and Day" wolf once howled outside Rex Hospital, but the mosaic glass-covered skyscape artwork now sits inside the main entrance under a new name: Rexanna.

"Tattoo Wolf" used to be visible to drivers passing Springmoor retirement center on Sawmill Road, but now he's secluded deeper inside the complex.

"Heritage Quilt" wolf is inside the nursery grounds at Logan Trading Co. in a bed of ornamental cabbage.

Other wolves have stayed in plain sight. "Mirror Wolf" is hard to miss outside the offices of Keep in Touch Wireless Choices in North Raleigh, covered with hundreds of hand-cut, diamond-shaped mirrors.

"On a bright, sunny day, it will blind you if you catch it the wrong way," said company president Henry Knight.

Possessive patronage

The girls at St. Mary's School became deeply attached to "Aldert," a wolf painted by the advanced art students and named after the school's founder, Aldert Smedes. Students panicked when they found out it was to be auctioned; the senior class feverishly began raising money to buy "Aldert" themselves.

In stepped 1987 grad Marcy Everett Voelkel, who wanted to give the wolf to the school as a memorial to her late mother, artist and 1959 grad Bettie Ann Whitehurst Everett. So the senior class backed off and Voelkel became the highest bidder for "Aldert," who now prowls the back campus with scenes from the school painted on his sides.

Then there's the weird tale of "Amber Yowl."

"Amber Yowl" was unlike any other. Artists Mark Lynch and Jason Craighead reshaped the body into a nightmarishly cartoonlike griffin -- head of an eagle, body of a lion -- with a single feather sticking crazily out of its skull.

Rather than selling to a stranger at auction, Lynch bought it from its sponsor and took it home from Moore Square.

"My intention was to wait until, I suppose, the wolf stuff died down and put it out in the yard and sell it," Lynch said.

The Raleigh sculptor hasn't sold it yet. For now, it's lurking in the shadows at his house, awaiting leg repairs. Somehow it seems a fitting fate for such a frightful wolf. But Lynch has no apology.

"I'm not trying to make strange," he said. "It just turns out that way, and I stopped worrying about it."

Back yard beasts

Many of Raleigh's red wolves have disappeared into back yards or houses, where they keep a low profile.

"Arty" wolf lives in such a place under a new name. Formerly known as "Evening at the Theatre," he now resides in the back yard of the Sara Lynn and K.D. Kennedy Jr. family. The Kennedy Theatre at the BTI Center for the Performing Arts is named for this family of longtime arts patrons.

Wearing white spats with music notes, opera singers and instruments swirling around his red and blue coat, "Arty" is popular with the Kennedy grandchildren. On special occasions, he is dressed in a tux and carted off to fund-raisers for show. But mostly, Kennedy said, he doesn't ramble much any more.

"I think everyone should have a content, solemn and contemplative wolf such as 'Arty,' " Kennedy said in an e-mail. "He is a lot more interesting than a worn-out couch in the corner of the playroom, and he is no trouble at all."

Elsewhere in Raleigh, Karen and David Jessee keep "The Palace Wolf" in a garden near their children's playground. Emily Eve Weinstein, the artist who painted elegant flowers and vines on the white wolf, is a longtime acquaintance of the couple, who have many of her paintings and other works at their home.

GlaxoSmithKline executive Steve Stefano bought the "Jimmy V" wolf -- carting golf clubs -- and keeps it in the foyer of his Cary home, where it amuses guests and his two large dogs.

And Carol Marcotte, the arts commission member who came up with the idea for the outdoor public art project, is another proud wolf owner. But "Gus" -- who is covered with an interpretation of the Gustav Klimt painting "Der Kuss" -- hangs out in the sunroom of her house, no longer a piece of public art.

"But we just did a large landscaping project and plan to move it outside," she said.

Is anyone missing a wolf?

"River Wolf" was one of three on display at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Two of the wolves were retrieved after the auction, but no one ever claimed the pebble-covered "River Wolf" from the airport's observation park.

"We contacted the Raleigh Arts Commission on several occasions to see if someone wanted to pick it up," airport spokeswoman Mindy Hamlin said.

"River Wolf" has been moved out of sight next to a maintenance building.

"It was facing some wear and tear at the park, because it's public," Hamlin said. "We still have it if someone wants to pick it up."

A long way from home

Surely one of the farthest-traveled creatures is that sneaky old "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing," who slinked off to the Park City, Utah, home of Carolina Mudcats owner Steve Bryant.

The dark glossy wolf in a fluffy white blanket was one of three wolves Bryant snatched up. He also bought "Jacques," the kidnapped wolf who was found in Cumberland County, who now resides at Bryant's getaway home in Atlantic Beach. Meanwhile, "Peek-A-Boo Pigs" -- with three pigs reading animal classics from inside the wolf's belly -- overlooks a foyer entrance into the family home in Smithfield.

"It shocks people when they first walk in the door and there's a wolf upstairs looking down at the entry way," Bryant said.

Bryant got caught up in the enthusiasm of the auction.

"I was blown away by the art," he said. "I'd seen this done in other cities with other animals, and I just thought it was something that would work for us."

A really big back yard

The primo wolf connoisseur turned out to be philanthropist Eliza Kraft Olander, who bought five wolves and set them free on her 55 acres near Falls Lake.

Why so many?

"That's a good question," Olander said, laughing. "It was extremely interesting. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing them around town. I love being in Raleigh, so why not have a piece of it?"

Olander has given away some of her wolves: one to a local school, another as a friend's 50th birthday present and a third to the Oakwood neighborhood, where it was first on display.

Her favorite among her purchases is "Another Wolfe Remembered." But the wolf she really wanted got away: The uncle of the young artist who created the butterfly-winged "Evinrude" outbid Olander and landed the wolf for $11,800 -- the highest price paid at the auction.

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The driving dilemma

Dec. 19, 2004
News & Observer
By Bruce Siceloff
 © Copyright 2004

If we can change our driving habits, maybe we can prove the "Tomato Map" wrong. Nicknamed for its striking red hue, the Triangle's newest color-coded traffic forecast calls for highway congestion to intensify and spread farther across the road map over the next three decades. All that red ink is a warning from local transportation planners that widespread traffic jams will foul the region's air and threaten its economic health. "This region has to do something beyond cars," said Janet D'Ignazio, senior researcher at N.C. State University's Center for Transportation and the Environment. "You cannot continue to grow a region and expect people to continue to travel just in the single-occupant automobile."

We Triangle drivers spend more time behind the wheel every year, and we make more car trips -- running errands, commut