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N.C. industries eyeing
the economic climate
BY JAKE RATLIFF
STAFF WRITER
North Carolina is ahead of the
economic curve. Despite slow
growth on the national level, the
state's largest industries are still
growing, albeit more slowly than
in the past.
And the industries might be get
ting an extra boost with the Federal
Reserve Board's Jan. 30 interest rate
cut of half of a percent, the second
radical rate cut in recent weeks.
John Akin, chairman of the
UNC Department of Economics,
said that the significant cuts will
most likely help boost the national
economy and that North Carolina
would be no exception.
“The three-quarter of a percent
cut is very big," Akin said, refer
ring to the first of the rate drops. “I
expect the Fed’s cuts will help the
whole country."
For North Carolina, the Fed’s
interest rate cuts will foster growth
in the state's already-healthy indus
tries such as health services and
technically skilled jobs, Akin said.
“We have a lot of people work
ing in parts of the economy that
haven’t slowed down," he said.
Akin also cited university
generated jobs as a key to North
National and World News
FROM THE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Both sides prep
for Super Tuesday
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)
Buoyed by cheering crowds and
bolstered by more than $1.3 mil
lion a day in TV ads. Democrats
Barack Obama and Hillary
Rodham Clinton raced through
the final hours of an unpredict
able Super Tuesday campaign
across 22 states.
Unwilling to leave anything to
chance, both Republican hopeftUs
John McCain and Mitt Romney
hastily rearranged their sched
ules to make one more late stop in
California, the largest state, with
170 delegates.
Huckabee says he
is in for long haul
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)
Mike Huckabee hasn't won a
Republican presidential contest
in a month. The result: Money
is tighter, his staff is smaller and
he can’t seem to get the attention
he once did.
Still, he says he's sticking
around for the long haul well
past Tuesday’s coast-to-coast pri
maries and caucuses if need be.
Huckabee's presence could
be a major factor in what essen
tially has become a race between
Republican front-runner John
McCain and Mitt Romney.
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Carolina's growth and the state’s
resistance to the slump in the
national economy.
Some say the Triangle area will
fare well because of its concentra
tion of three large universities.
‘Knowledge works are less
impacted than services and manu
facturing in an economic down
turn,” said UNC economics profes
sor Buck Goldstein.
North Carolina’s economic
growth has led to a population
boom, which Akin said has led
to gains in the housing sector, as
well.
In 2007 the average price of real
estate in North Carolina increased
by 4 percent, said Julie Woodson,
director of public affairs for the
N.C. Association of Realtors.
“Homes in the state are worth
more now than they were a few
years ago," Woodson said.
She added that the housing
market will see even more gains as
the state's population continues to
increase projections call for a pop
ulation increase of about 400,000
by 2010. “Those people will need a
place to live," Woodson said.
However, the state still has room
for improvement.
Although most sectors of the
Government troops battle rebels in
the Chadian capital for third day
N’DJAMENA, Chad (AP) -
Thousands of people fled Chad's
capital Monday as government
troops and rebels battled for a
third day. Gunfire and explo
sions were heard throughout the
city, a U.N. official said.
The U.N. Security Council
condemned the rebel offensive
and authorized France and other
nations to send troops to help
defend President Idriss Deby’s
government
Casualties were believed to be
high, and the violence threatened
peacekeeping and aid operations
intended to stabilize the border
Israel fears more
suicide bombings
DIMONA, Israel (AP) - A
Palestinian bomber blew himself
up Monday in this desert town
near Israel's nuclear reactor, kill
ing an Israeli woman and wound
ing 11 people in the first suicide
attack inside Israel in a year.
The attack fueled Israel's fears
that Gaza militants would exploit a
border breach with Egypt to sneak
into Israel. Militants claimed the
bombers entered Israel through
the porous Egyptian border.
An offshoot of Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas'
Fatah movement claimed respon
sibility, threatening to complicate
recently revived peace talks.
state's economy have seen job
growth in the past year, the man
ufacturing sector has lost jobs,
said Larry Parker, spokesman for
the N.C. Employment Security
Commission.
While the state’s economy is
growing, Parker added, it is not
growing as much as it has in the
past four to five years.
Economic growth is unequally
distributed throughout the state.
According to the 2007 report from
Appalachian State University’s
Western North Carolina Economic
Index, western North Carolina expe
rienced economic declines through
out September and October.
And while the country as a whole
might be going through a period of
slow growth, some scholars hesi
tate to call it a recession.
“I don’t think (a recession) is a
foregone conclusion,’ Goldstein
said. “It’s still up in the air.’
It could be some time before
the Fed’s rate cuts filter down to
the consumer, he said, adding that
homeowners with an adjustable
rate mortgage wifi see the benefits of
the interest rates decrease sooner.
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@ unc.edu.
of the Darfur region of Sudan.
The rebels arrived on the city’s
outskirts Friday after a three-day
push across the desert from Chad's
eastern border with Sudan.
Since the outset of the fight
ing, Chadian officials have
repeatedly accused Sudan of
backing the rebels. An aide
to French President Nicolas
Sarkozy said Sunday that Sudan
wanted to crush Deby’s regime
to keep the European Union
from the imminent deployment
of a peacekeeping force that is
to operate along Chad's volatile
border with Darfur.
Budget proposal
will yield deficit
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)
The record $3.1 trillion bud
get proposed by President Bush
on Monday would produce fed
eral deficits, despite his attempts
to impose curbs on Medicare
and eliminate scores of popular
domestic programs.
Slumping revenues and the
cost of an economic rescue pack
age will combine to produce a
huge jump in the deficit to $4lO
billion this year and $407 billion
in 2009, the White House says
But even those figures are opti
mistic since they depend on rosy
economic forecasts and leave out
the full costs of the war in Iraq.
News
Grant to help Triangle s
alternative energy aims
N.C. State, Utah to partner on project
BY ERIK RUST
STAFF WRITER
Triangle researchers hope to
enter the competitive arena for
alternative-energy production offi
cially after winning a grant of $2
million from the U.S. Department
of Energy.
The Research Triangle Institute
International will partner with N.C.
State University and the University
of Utah to pursue a $3.2 million
project focusing on converting wood
biomass into liquid transportation
fuel.
The project, which will run for the
next three years, has the possibility to
expand to a large-scale operation.
“It has quite a potential to have
an impact because if I want to com
pare it to corn and ethanol, you
are fairly limited to the kinds of
products you can make and much
of the corn is wasted," said profes
sor Kevin Whittv of the Institute
for Clean and Secure Energy at the
University of Utah.
“This (process) can take any type
of biomass and turn it into fuel."
The group was one of four
applicants competitively selected
for $7-7 million worth of federal
funding for researching new bio
fuels development more than
$1 billion in DOE funding has been
dedicated to projects in the same
Web PAC ups participation
MoveOn members endorse Obama
BY ARIEL ZIRULNICK
STAFF WRITER
In an election flush with ground
breaking campaign techniques,
even political action committees art
changing the way they do business.
MoveOn.org. an online political
action committee, endorsed a presi
dential candidate for the first time,
choosing Sen. Barack Obama
What makes this endorsement
unique is that the candidate was
chosen based solely on a popular
vote from the PAC’s members.
MoveOn's membere join the PAC
by signing up online. The members
of traditional PACs, long in the busi
ness of endorsements, typically share
geographical, professional or other
specific characteristics, but the only
common characteristic among
MoveOn members is their belief
in progressive leadership.
“MoveOn is unlike any union or
any other PAC that's focused on a
single issue," said Students for Barack
Obama Director Vivek Chilukuri.
“It’s very democratic. I think
MoveOn.org is one of the best exam
ples of how democracy is evolving in
the information age," he said.
Online PACs are relatively new,
so people are unsure of just how
influential they will be.
“What is unclear is whether an
0 UNC
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION
AND I.IKKAHY SCIFNC'F
I rIA Lil Siva Vaidhyanathan. author of Copyrights and
I lU 8 I U IIIUI I Copywnmgs, will present the School of
Information and Library Science Henderson
■ / I I Lecture on "The Human Knowledge Project
K fiP (Pan 1): Four Conceptual Errors concerning
IXI V/**'vUyV/ Massive Digital Library Projects.”
OrAIAPt The talk will outline the grand mistakes that
|| (part 1) we are making in the rush to digitize every-
J thing and offer a vision of a better way to link
the greater population of the world with the
greatest sources of knowledge.
gs* mm
I raTC| Siva Vaidhyanathan is a cultural historian
HI !&• and media scholar w ho is well know n for
■ fjpafc opposing Google's book scanning project.
I ti The Chronicle of Higher Education has
I HR called him "one of academe's best-known
i.. , scholars of intellectual property and its role
I contemporary culture."
R Wcdnesda y’ Feb 6, 2008 at 3 p.m.
Student Union Auditorium
S;:.. ' 7 > Ks\l' 'H’.'ON l\hl<"CliU|: UtK Cdl.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2008
field within the last year.
UNC professor Douglas
Crawford-Brown, the UNC repre
sentative to the Research Triangle
Energy Consortium, said he thinks
the initiative is promising.
“Washington, D.C., did not con
sider the Triangle area to be a key
player in this area, and Berkeley
just received a very large grant in
the ways of alternative energy,"
Crawford-Brown said.
“This grant will move this geo
graphic area into new areas for
biofiiel technology."
The grant project will work with
pilot facilities in order to establish
a proof of concept, which can then
be put into mass production.
The first step is to take wood
based biomass, collected and pro
cessed by N.C. State from timber
harvesting, and transfer it to the
University of Utah where it will be
decomposed into synthetic gas.
“The government grant said they
would not pay for a $3 (million) to
5 million gasifier facility, which the
University of Utah has," said pro
fessor Steve Kelley of N.C. State's
Department of Wood and Paper
Sciences.
The University of Utah is where
the majority of experimental work
will be conducted. Whittv said.
After the wood biomass is bro-
Internet-based organization can
actually turn out voters on Election
Day the same way more traditional
member groups might," said UNC
political science professor Tom
Carsey.
The same is true for MoveOn,
which is often seen as exceptionally
liberal, most recently known for its
“General Petraeus or General Betray
us” ad condemning Gen. David
Petraeus' leadership in Iraq.
“(MoveOn is) one of the most
risible of these groups, particularly
on the liberal side of the spectrum."
Carsey said.
Despite uncertainty about how
much Sen. Hillary Clinton has in
common with MoveOn, Heels for
Hillary urged its members to vote
last week to have MoveOn endorse
their candidate.
However, when the PAC
voted to endorse Obama instead,
Heels for Hillary member Mike
Radionchenko said he didn't think
the result would make a difference.
“Endorsements tend to portray
the organization's support, and I
think it’s pretty dear from the vote
totals that Obama represents the
base of MoveOn better." he said, cit
ing a recent National Journal rank
ing that named Obama the most
liberal senator 0f2007-
“This (process) can
take any type of
biomass and tarn
it into fuelS
KEVIN WHITTY, professor at
INSTITUTE FOR CLEAN AND SECURE ENERGY AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
ken dowm into gas in Utah, impu
rities preventing efficient biofiiel
production will be removed with
technology developed by RTI and
the purified gas will be converted
into liquid fuel.
Crawford-Brown said he hopes
the project will bring recognition to
the newly formed RTEC, which held
its first symposium in November.
RTEC, which consists of UNC,
Duke and N.C. State, as well as RTI,
evaluates the interplay between
energy, environment and society in
order to make public policy.
Each institution involved in the
project hopes to move the experi
ment to a larger scale if successful
after the three-year period.
“There are lots of projects in the
start-up phase," said RTI Senior
Research Engineer Dave Dayton.
“Hopefully we can set up a plat
form for anew fuel technology
industry.’
Contact the State £2 National
Editor at xtntdeskQo unc.edu.
“ MoveOn.org is one
of the best examples
of how democracy
is evolving; in the
information age
VIVEK CHILUKURI, STUDENTS FOR
OBAMA DIRECTOR
Chilukuri said he doesn't see
the endorsement haring much rel
evance beyond the primaries.
“When you're in a primary, the
policy- and ideological differences
between candidates is very small,
so things like this can help make
up people's mind," he said.
“(A PAC’s) biggest benefit is in
mobilizing supporters, not neces
sarily converting supporters."
Despite ambivalence about their
impact online PACs are likely to con
tinue growing, said Massie Ritsch.
communications director for the
nonpartisan Center for Responsive
Politics in Washington, D.C.
“Every ideological PAC is becom
ing an online PAC because online
fundraising is the area where
there is the greatest potential for,
growth," he said. “(They) can draw
from really anyone. The potential
for fundraising is much larger."
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@ unc.edu .7
7