News-Record.com

Flush with the glow of the successful Chrysler Classic of Greensboro and the opening of Winston-Salem's new Dell plant, we may have another small reason to be hopeful about the Triad's long-term prospects.

Word has trickled out that the site selection bosses from computer chip giant Intel came to town in June for that other golf tournament, the U.S. Open in Pinehurst, as guests of the Greensboro Economic Development Partnership.

After the tournament, they came to Greensboro, got a tour, and sampled the high life at the Grandover resort.

Dan Lynch, the partnership's acting president, confirmed that the invitation was part of the partnership's ongoing marketing efforts.

"It was our way of starting the discussion and so often, that's how you do it in this business," Lynch said. "He knows a lot more about Greensboro and North Carolina than before he came in."

Lynch said that the folks at Intel had already heard about the Dell and FedEx projects in the Triad. And while Intel has no projects planned right now, Lynch says, the visit could bear fruit in the future.

Intel would be perfect for the new economy that's springing up here. It's a supplier for Dell and it ships with FedEx.

But what about that nagging problem in Guilford County -- limited land for industrial sites?

Lynch says there's movement on that front too. He says that Ed Kitchen, who recently retired as Greensboro's city manager, is working with the chamber of commerce and the partnership and is still actively involved in looking at ways to join business with government to build up an inventory of industrial land before there are buyers. That's something that is very expensive for developers.

So for Lynch, "I think we're positioning ourselves well."

That's an actual excuse an employee used to explain missing work, according to a survey recently released by CareerBuilder.com.

The survey showed an increase in the number of workers this year who called in sick with fake excuses. Hiring managers said the most unusual excuses workers gave ranger from "I'm too drunk to drive to work" to "I cut my fingernails too short, they're bleeding, and I have to go to the doctor."

Forty-three percent of workers surveyed said made a bogus sick call at least once during the past year, compared to 35 percent in the Job site's 2004 survey, according to a press release.

Sure, the stats are surprising, but the bizarre excuses employees gave for missing work are even better:

Haunted by the buyout of Jefferson-Pilot Corp.?
Tortured by the thought that this venerable company's headquarters is leaving?
In a state of fright over possible layoffs?
Has JP got the remedy for you!
It's a Halloween ghost-fest.
Jefferson-Pilot is sponsoring the Oct. 20 opening night of Triad Stage's "The Turn of the Screw" and has invited community leaders for complementary admission and hors d'oeuvres that night. An e-mail invitation was distributed by Triad Stage the morning after JP's Monday announcement that it is being bought for $7.5 billion by Lincoln National of Philadelphia.
The Henry James play, ostensibly written about hauntings and evil in an upper-class Victorian home (it was written in 1898)it has been interpreted as a meditation of the nature of paranoia and morality as well.
Scheduled long before JP's announcement, the play can remind us all in Greensboro that it only takes a "turn of the screw" to upset our comfortable corporate equilibrium.

Bob Orr, the mastermind behind the lawsuit against the incentives offered to Dell, is in the process of planning another suit. The latest target for the former N.C. Supreme Court justice is Amendment One, passed last November.

Orr says the ballot language used to describe the legislation hid the fact that people would give up their right to vote on bond issues. He has not said when he could file.

Amendment One allows cities and counties to create "development districts." Local governments could then issue bonds without taxpayer approval to support development projects in those districts. Taxes from those districts would repay the bonds.

In other Orr news, lawyers for Dell and for state and local governments issued motions to dismiss the Dell lawsuit today. One of the issues they cited as a reason it should be thrown out is that the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law is not a business hurt by the incentives so it has no reason to file.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court last week decided to take a case, Cuno v. DaimlerChrysler, very similar to the one filed against the Dell incentives. It looks at whether incentives violate the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution and should be decided in June. Lawyers for both sides say the outcome would affect the state’s incentives laws.

Has gone. At least temporarily. The small caffeine delivery store is a favorite of N&R and JP employees. I have also been known to run into Business Journal people but have not seen anyone from the Rhino.

It will reopen on the corner of Washington and Elm in one week. Competition will be brewing up as the new location puts it closer to the Green Bean and Alex's. Let the games begin.

The Greensboro Department of Transportation will be hosting tours of the Depot on Sat. from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m to mark the return of passenger trains to downtown. It's free...and there will be food and face painting for kids. Adults can enter to win a round trip ticket for two from GSO to east coast cities.

Electronic Data Systems said it plans to layoff about 50 mostly clerical workers at its facility at 725 Regional Rd.

The layoffs should start in mid-December. We'll post more as we find out the reason behind it.

Update: This won't make into the paper tomorrow because we received the info post deadline. But the reason for the layoffs is that the company is getting out of the reverse mortgage lending business.

About 70 employees will remain at the office. About 1300 employees work for EDS across the state.

The N.C. Biotech Center gave $25,000 to the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce to create a "Biotechnology Academy" with UNCG, N.C. A&T, and GTCC. Perhaps I'm cynical but I'm unclear who will attend this and what sort of degree they will receive -- and how useful it will be. Something to follow up on.

Grant number two, $75,776, goes to Forsyth Tech to track student progress in biotechnology training programs. Why does Forsyth get all the goods?

Case in point. Salem College in Winston-Salem will recieve $36,861 to help place students win internships in biotech companies.

Incredibly low, apparently, if you really were dumb... (sorry) ...misinformed enough to bite on some of those SPAM e-mail offers for sure-thing stocks.

Our favorite new site around here is "SPAM STOCK TRACKER: Just how much can you lose? Tracking penny stocks, hot stock tips and other stock scams coming from SPAM can be fun!"

The premise is, what would happen if you bought 1,000 shares of every stock tip you got in SPAM e-mail?

Since the blogger isn't really rich enough to buy all that stock, he has set up pretend accounts to track those fantasy stocks. Think of it as fantasy football for the financial set.

Every day you can see how well he's doing with those stocks, individually and as a whole.

Trust me. It's ugly.

On May 5, the blogger began to buy stocks.

As of Oct. 21, he has spent an imaginary $17,405. But the stocks are worth only $8,745. (Reminds me of my 401(k)after I rode the tech bust a little too far down.)

What gems can we spotlight from his chart?

Here's one: Nomad International was purchased for 8.5 cents on May 6. It's now worth 7 tenths of a cent. That's a 91.7 percent drop!

Here's another: First Canadian, a holding company that was worth 41 cents on May 6 and is now worth 99 percent less, in the range of 6 one-hundredths of a cent. I think the envelope your statement comes in is worth more than that.

But you can be a winner. Yes, These Dark Times can make you rich. Just ask Sniffex. Honest, I don't make this stuff up.

It makes small, light explosives testing devices and is finding eager markets among governments around the world.

If you had bought Sniffex on June 27 at $1.17 a share, you'd have more than doubled your money by 134 percent to $2.74.

You can thank Al-Qaida for that one.

Salem College received about $37,000 from the N.C. Biotech Center "to support student internships and class projects with biotechnology companies and related industries," according to a statement from the Center yesterday.

I'm not sure how many students will be eligible to use the grant, however. Biology is the 7th most popular major at the school of 1100. I don't have a count for the number of women enrolled in Biology. But Communications and Sociology are the two most popular majors at the school, followed by English, Psychology and Business Administration, according to Amelia Penland Fuller, the assistant registrar.

I'm following up with Allen Purser at the Greensboro Chamber to find out how the $25,000 it received from the group to start a "Biotechnology Academy" with local colleges will be used.

Unemployment was virtually unchanged in September from the month earlier, according to seasonally adjusted statistics from the N.C. Employment Security Commission Friday. But the number of people employed throughout the state dropped, a result of grocery store chain Winn-Dixie shuttering its stores, said economist Mark Vitner from Wachovia.

Unemployment stood at 5.5 percent in Sept., down from 5.6 percent in August. The number of people that were employed dropped 10,500, though.

The two figures may seem to contradict one another. But unemployment measures the number of people who are not working and who are actively searching for a job. The number of people employed measures the number of people working in the state. The two don't necessarily go hand in hand. Any number of factors, like people deciding its too hard to find a job or a return to school will affect the unemployment numbers.

Aside from Winn-Dixie, Vitner said high oil prices are taking a toll on the economy. "Everyone is worrying that sales are going to slump," he said. As a reslt, retailers are more cautious in their hiring.

He is optimistic that retailers will do well over the upcoming holiday season, though. Wachovia will release a retail holiday forecast in the first part of November, he said.

Regional economic developer the Piedmont Triad Partnership has sent a mission to Boston to scope out biotechnology companies that may want to relocate or open an office or plant in this region.

Since the public is not privvy to how many companies actually come down for a peek at the bounty of the Piedmont its hard to gauge whether the forays across the country and the globe actually produce interest. What's clear is that there has not been a lot of action of late.

Since giant computer maker Dell made an announcement that it would open an assembly plant in Winston-Salem, economic development news has been scarce.

If you haven't yet received your tax refund from the IRS and you have a moment to try and track it down, head to a new division of the IRS Web site called "Where's my refund?".

Supposedly, as long as you know your social security number or taxpayer ID number, your filing status and the exact amount of your refund, you should be able to trace your check if it hasn't arrived within 28 days of the original IRS mailing date. You should also know the approximate day you filed and how (paper, electronic, etc.) you filed your return, as these were follow-up questions when I tried it out.

In order to perform the check and change your mailing address or other information, if need be, you need to visit the site via a browser with 128-bit encryption and enable both cookies and JavaScript on your computer. Also, some of the tracing services aren't available at certain hours.

If you successfully trace your refund -- or if you provide all the correct information but the IRS still can't track it down -- let us know.