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Welcome to the News & Record's newest web log, at least for the moment.

Here, you will find a running dialog throughout the day of business news ranging in size from mega-mergers to upcoming meetings of area entrepreneurs.

Feel free to contact any of our business staff about an item, or to offer a story. We're not a big crew here, so we are balancing many priorities for the next day's paper, the weekend and farther ahead. If we can't get it in our section of the paper, perhaps we will be able to post it here or elsewhere in the paper.

Thanks for participating.

John Nagy, business editor

We got lots of calls and e-mails about a story we ran in January on why cable television rates rise every year, with or without inflation. The key factor is that, where there is no competition for cable service, the rates are typically higher than where two or more companies battle for customers.

Now comes a warning in today's Wall Street Journal that telephone rates may be headed the same way. The story very aptly notes that the merger of Verizon Communications and MCI Inc. and SBI Communications Inc.'s deal to take over

This post comes to us from business reporter Nate DeGraff, who writes about the former Wachovia tower in today's paper.

On Tuesday, photographer Kim Walker and I had a first-hand look inside the former Wachovia tower on North Elm Street downtown. We toured several of the floors, the underground parking garage and the roof during our 75-minute visit.

Exploring the gutted, 16-story building is a bit of an adventure. There aren't any lights, so our guide, developer Roy Carroll, used a flashlight to lead us down darkened staircases. The elevator we rode in was a little temperamental; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

Many Wachovia customers will remember cashing their paychecks in the old building decades ago. The remnants of the bank are still there: an open vault on the first floor, and a dumb waiter that carried money to an even larger vault two stories up.

We found out today that Dell will break ground on its Winston-Salem factory on Feb. 23 at 2 p.m.

The event, a week from today, is by invitation only, the company tells us, but the whole region will be interested.

The 100-acre site is already graded and Winston-Salem inspectors released a map of it last week. You may recall that the layout for the more than 500,000 square-foot factory calls for about 3,000 parking spaces for workers and trucks.

Dell is shooting for the fall to produce its first computer, and that means a construction job with little wiggle room.

Dell was the biggest business news story of 2004, and the company wouldn't be here if it didn't like the region and its work force(oh, and the $240 million in state and $37 million in local incentives didn't hurt either).

Whether you were for or against that outlay, it's an exciting story that will be unfolding for months and years, as we watch for Dell suppliers and others to bring in more jobs beyond the 1,500 that Dell is bringing.

At least one Dell supplier has said Yes to the Triad: Austin Foam Plastics.
The packaging company said Wednesday it is opening a plant in the region.
"We've made a commitment to come, but we haven't picked a city," said Van Holley, vice president for business development for the company.
The company plans to lease space in the 75,000 to 125,000 square foot range, Holley said.
No word on how many employees could be hired, but AFP's Tennessee plant, which supplies Dell's facility in Lebanon, has a mix of about 100 full and part-time workers.

Independence Air just announced they're adding Fort Myers, Florida -- via Washington Dulles International -- to their network of destinations. Independence Air flies out of Piedmont Triad International Airport several times a day to Dulles. Fort Myers is the fifth Florida destination, joining Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach, and Jacksonville.

So we were talking about ways that we might write stories in our print edition about the local blog world and local bloggers.

Heck, there are probably even business stories that we could do about blogging.

One of us brilliantly suggested we should go to you to get some ideas for stories.

I have a few myself, but I'm always open to more ideas. So here's my invitation to you. Got an idea for a print story about blogs or the Internet? The more it has to do with the local scene, the better. And remember, I can't do all of the stories you might suggest. But I will certainly read your ideas and maybe a few of them will get into the News & Record.

Post away.

In the not so distant past, the News & Record used to run Dr. Bombay's syndicated column on all things computer. Then, it sort of disappeared off the business page. Why? Not quite sure, but we've gotten more than a few requests to bring the good doctor back.

Well, after solving a few computer glitches that Bombay could have helped us with, I believe we can say that he will begin running again. Look for the feature in its usual Friday spot.

The Rotary International service club turns 100 years old on Wednesday. It's a big day for the region's Rotarians as they will gather at the Koury Convention Center for a luncheon marking the centennial.

First -- a true confession: I am a member of a local Rotary Club, so I'm a tad partisan. Unfortunately, work duties will keep me from attending the lunch, so I thought I'd do my part by giving you the quick scoop on what's going on.

About 900 Rotarians from Mocksville to Burlington and Pinehurst to Virginia will be a part of the luncheon.

The group's mission is to serve the community, pure and simple. We enjoy making friends through the club, but we're always trying to focus our fund-raising and our volunteer time on what we can do for people in our district.

Recently, for example, the eight Rotary clubs in Greensboro came together to build a $135K playground inside the new downtown baseball
stadium.

Worldwide, Rotary has led fund-raising and volunteer efforts to nearly eradicate polio from the earth. It also runs the largest private educational scholarship program in the world. Another benefit: People from the world's nations get to know each other better.

Each club has multiple, often dozens, of projects that improve lives in our community and in countries around the world, including Moldova, Panama, Nigeria, and many others.

In a blast from the past, Rotary founder Paul Harris will speak at the luncheon. (Actually, a man who looks just like Mr. Harris will do his best impersonation.)

It'll be a great event for local members and it provides a good occasion for me to spotlight the club.

OK, commercial's over. Thanks for reading.

(And thanks to my friend Patrick Eakes, a friend of mine and fellow Rotarian, for much of this information.)

Dell jumped to the top of Fortune Magazine's annual list of most admired companies Tuesday.

The computer giant, which plans to open a desktop assembly plant in Winston-Salem in the fall, moved up from the fifth spot last year, knocking off Wal-Mart from its top position.

The other top-ten companies are: General Electric; Starbucks; Wal-Mart; Southwest Airlines; FedEx; Berkshire Hathaway; Microsoft; Johnson & Johnson; and Procter & Gamble.

The full list of 582 companies can be found at Fortune for subscribers or in the March 7 issue.

Elon has narrowed its search for a law school dean to three candidates, said a spokesman Tuesday.
"We've had several candidates on campus for interviews," said David Hibbard, a spokesman. "We're getting feedback from faculty and evaluating it now."
While the school would not name the candidates or a decision date, it could happen in the next week.
Elon has said it would like to appoint a dean by March 1 in order to ensure that he or she has time to hire faculty and staff and prepare for the fall 2006 opening.
President Leo Lambert will make the final decision, which will not have to be voted on by the school's board of trustees.

Looks like the News & Record, Triad Business Journal and High Point Enterprise are no longer alone in writing about the emerging furniture market in Las Vegas. Ivan Cutler's blog today includes a post on a story in The New York Times about Las Vegas and the new furniture showroom under construction. Catch Ivan's interesting take on it.

Not a day goes by when some company's earnings report doesn't cross my desk or flash across my computer. Earnings are, after all, the bottom line for business. But it just isn't the bottom line for our business coverage these days.

The News & Record, and many other newspapers, used to cover industries, and the respective local companies, closely. I remember not too long ago when we had reporters covering "tobacco," "banking and insurance," "furniture," "textiles" and "retail." When local companies in these industries released their quarterly and yearly earnings reports, we wrote stories about them. When a new senior vice president was named, we wrote a story. Not so anymore.

Notes on the Dell plant ground breaking Wednesday that didn't make it into the paper:

Scott Livengood's gone as Krispy Kreme CEO, and the corporate jet was sold for $30 million. But life can still be good if you're the corporate counsel for Krispy Kreme.
GCSouth, a magazine for corporate counsels, says that Frank Murphy made $421,767 as Krispy Kreme's general counsel in 2004.
The company's problems will keep him plenty busy, though, so he'll likely be earning that money in the future.