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On Thursday night at the State of the Triad event held in High Point, Time Warner Cable announced the winner of its Business Accelerator Award.

The winner was The Human Resource Group, a small personnel company in High Point. The company will win a free business services from Time Warner Cable for a year along with office supplies from Staples. Semi-finalists for the award were AudioFusion Inc. in Winston-Salem, and Do-Re-Me & You, a Greensboro company.

The award recognizes new small businesses with less than 100 employees.

Malachi House, a faith-based program for recovering addicts, will have to look beyond Anderson Street to expand its offerings.

The Greensboro Zoning Commission, in a unanimous vote, denied Monday program founder Eugene Peterson's request to rezone property at 4423 Anderson St. for a boarding and rooming house.

A handful of the nine board members present commended Peterson, a drug and alcohol addict who has been clean for 15 years, on his work with the men who come to Malachi, on Balboa Street, for help.

But the neighborhood, commissioners and city planners said, needs to remain as residential as possible.

Peterson has owned an Anderson Street home for about a year. He currently houses four Malachi House graduates there as they look for work and homes of their own. That's kosher. But putting more than four unrelated people into the home - and Peterson wants to house up to nine men - would require a rezoning and a permit from the city for a rooming house.

Neighbors signed a petition against the Malachi expansion, and a handful of Anderson Street residents showed up Monday to speak against the plans.

After the jump, a roundup of other zoning activity ...

Two months after High Point and Guilford County officials authorized a total of $164,000 in incentives for the expansion of Lodging by Liberty (formally Lodging by Charter) in High Point, the state department of commerce announced the company's intentions to expand Tuesday.

Gee, what a surprise!

GREENSBORO — VF Corp. plans to delist its common stock from NYSE Arca, an electronic exchange, to eliminate duplicate fees associated with listing the stock in two places, the jeanswear company announced in a Wednesday news release.

Shares of VF common stock will continue to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

NYSE Arca, formerly known as the Pacific Exchange, came under the umbrella of the NYSE Group last year.

The VF pullout should take place next month, the company said, and should not impact the stock’s liquidity

This year's Triad Holiday Challenge brought in 289,000 food items for the local Salvation Army's pantry, according to a Wednesday news release from PR Newswire.

The annual event, in its fifth year, received donations from more than 15,000 employees of 28 Triad companies, according to the release. Mattress-maker Sealy, Fox8 and Old Dominion Freight Line led the charge, with Sealy donating 150,000 items to the pantry.

"Last year, we were able to stock the Triad's food pantries through July with the items donated through the Triad Holiday Challenge and the Sealy/Fox8 Holiday Concerts," the Salvation Army's Terry Edwards said in the news release. "The significant increase in items donated this year means we'll be able to help even more of our neighbors well into next fall."

Contest sponsors examined donations and named three winning companies, and three runners-up, based on company size. American Express, with 26,180 donations, took first place for companies with more than 750 employees. Citi Cards, with 17,400 donations, took second.

Among companies with 176 to 749 employees, High Point Bank & Trust took the honors for contributing 1,370 food items to the pantry. Womble Carlyle, with 805 items, was the runner up.

The Greensboro division of Piedmont Natural Gas took honors among companies with fewer than 176 employees. The utility's local office donated 9,550 items. And Home Services Relocation donated 1,700 items to become the runner-up among the smallest companies participating.

Rezoning approvals by Guilford County planning officials will allow a local scuba school to move and an emerging shopping center to grow.

In a unanimous vote Wednesday night, the Guilford County Planning Board approved a rezoning of two acres of property on Brown Summit Road north of Summit Avenue for office and retail uses. The property is set to become the new digs for Greensboro Scuba School, run by Grant and Judith Dawson.

The school currently rents space at 7224 Browns Summit Road, but the owners recently purchased the nearby new property. They hope a move to a larger location will give them the option to build a pool for activities including scuba instruction and underwater photography.

The board also approved a rezoning for additional business growth along Hicone Road, despite protests from county planning staff who worried that more retail would lead to commercial stripping east on Hicone. T. Cooper James & Associates, which is building a Dollar General store immediately to the west, hopes to add more retail on the additional 1.67 acres rezoned Wednesday. The planning board rezoned the Dollar General property last fall.

After the jump, a roundup of other planning board news ...

I've been a bit remiss about blogging recently, so I'm playing catch-up this week. Here are a couple things that have come across my desk that I haven't had the chance to post:

* K. Hovnavian Homes is pre-selling homes in its new Colfax community, Pheasant Ridge. Homes range from 2,600 to 4,000 square feet and are priced in the upper $200s, according to a news release from the company. For more information, call 382-3963.

* For all you Southpoint shoppers, L'Occitane en Provence, a retailer of soaps, lotions, bath products and other items with a French flair, will open at The Streets at Southpoint in the spring. the retailer will take up 1,000 square feet of space on the mall's lower level, the Durham shopping center announced earlier this month.

* The National Retail Federation says gift-card scams aren't as simple to pull off as you might think. Some consumers have been alarmed by reports that they could lose cash from their gift cards if thieves steal the card numbers, the NRF reports.
But safeguards like scratch-off security codes, individual verification numbers and protective packaging help minimize thievery in the $25 billion gift-card industry, the NRF says.
Nevertheless, retail experts encourage consumers to exercise caution with their cards. Keep an original receipt for cards you purchase - even if you give them as gifts - in case the card has been used and needs to be returned, Joseph LaRocca, NRF's vice president of loss prevention, said in the release. Retailers can check the card for fraud and often are able to refund the value of the card to the cardholder, he said.
The NRF's other recommendations include:
* Make sure the scratch-off section of the card is intact before buying. If you find a card that already has been scratched off, take it to customer service at the store.
* Don't buy gift cards from online auction sites. Those cards could be fake or could have been obtained through fraud.

Two High Point businesses have renewed long-term leases with Liberty Property Trust, the real-estate investment trust announced in a Thursday news release.

Banner Pharmacaps, a drug delivery company, will maintain its 14,493 square foot global headquarters at Liberty's Lakeside One, the flagship building in High Point's Mendenhall Business Park. Banner also has expanded its lease at Liberty's Federal Ridge Business Park in Greensboro. The healthcare company has committed to 33,000 square feet - nearly doubling its original space at 4344 Federal Drive.

Standard Register, an Ohio-based business that offers services including printing, design and consulting, also has renewed its lease with Liberty. The publicly traded document-services company will keep its 48,000 square-foot space in the Eagle Hill Industrial Park, at 4198 Eagle Drive in High Point. Standard Register also rents space in Liberty's South Oaks and One Piedmont Center developments.

Investors working with Greensboro's Steven D. Bell & Co. recently purchased 35 acres in North Atlanta for a $95-million retail development, the real-estate company announced in a news release.

A Bell-sponsored ownership group has partnered with the Fla.-based Sembler Company on the project - a four-level, 345,000 square-foot office and retail center called The Prado in Sandy Springs. The project, a redevelopment of an existing retail, apartment and office center, is slated to open in early 2009 and will include a Target, grocer Publix, Staples and Home Depot, according to the release.

"From a financial investment point of view, this is one of the most ambitious projects we've undertaken in the company's history," Steven Bell, Bell's chief executive officer, said in the release.

Bell & Co. reports that its collaborations with Sembler have produced nearly $600 million in project during the past six years. Bell manages a portfolio of residential and retail properties valued at about $2.7 billion, the company reports.

A number of states, including North Carolina, have won a victory in a consumer-protection battle against Vonage.

The N.C. Attorney General's office announced today that the Internet-phone provider will take strides to better its 911 service and let consumers know about its limitations.

Vonage has seen quite a bit of press about its subscribers' problems dialing 911. Customers can't just pick up the phone and dial in an emergency. Instead, they have to activate 911 service in an extra step - or get a recorded activation message when something goes wrong. Even then, 911 service doesn't work during a power outage or when broadband Internet access is on the blink.

Even when the lights are on and the Web is working, Vonage customers have complained that they can't be sure to get through to a dispatcher. Sometimes, the service fails to provide a caller's address and phone number to the 911 dispatcher.

At other times, the attorney general's office said in a news release, customers have been routed to administrative lines that are not answered at all hours - a serious problem in case of an emergency.

Vonage's settlement here will provide new subscribers with a full disclosure of the company's 911 limitations - and customers will have to check a box to verify that they understand the differences between Vonage and a traditional landline through companies like BellSouth. Current subscribers in the state will receive an e-mail explaining those same limitations and the activation process for 911 using Internet phone - sometimes called Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP for short.

The company also will be responsible for transmitting subscribers' addresses to dispatchers in the case of an emergency and keeping updated records of customers' addresses.

For more about the Vonage issues and VoIP, check out these sites:

Vonage 911
CNET: 'Deadly delay on Vonage 911?'
ConsumerAffairs: Subscriber claims Vonage put him on hold during fire.
FCC fact sheet on VoIP
Background on VoIP and 911 issues
Vonage announcement on 'Enhanced 911' services

Consumer confidence grew in the Southeast during the second half of this year and remained stronger than the national outlook, according to a report released today by Raleigh-based RBC Centura.

The RBC CASH Index, a survey of consumer attitudes benchmarked against a score of 100, put consumer confidence at 99.8 between July and December of this year. That's an increase of 0.3 points over January to June and a sharp rise from a score of 74 for the last six months of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina dampened consumers' attitudes toward the region's economy, personal finance, savings, investments and job security.

Consumer confidence in the Southeast - Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia - tends to surpass that of consumers nationwide on the RBC Index, and the past six months have been no exception. National consumer confidence, as measured by RBC, stands at 85.4 - 14.4 points less than in this region.

After the jump, a breakdown of the index ...

We ran a brief about this in today's News & Record, but just in case you didn't see it: Clearwire, the wireless broadband provider with locations at area malls and shopping centers, is offering services to record and send holiday greetings to the troops through Dec. 31.

Friends and family of troops stationed in the U.S. and overseas can record video messages and send them via e-mail using Clearwire's Internet service at the following locations:

4215-I W. Wendover Ave. in Greensboro: 299-7927
Four Seasons Town Centre kiosk in Greensboro: 362-5202
Burlington Square Mall kiosk in Burlington: 362-6054
1724-101 Battleground Ave. in Greensboro: 691-1373
Hanes Mall kiosk in Winston-Salem: 362-6045

North Carolina falls in the middle of the 50 states when it comes to economic competition, according to a report released today by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University.

The sixth annual report, which ranks states on an index of 0 to 10, considers factors including infrastructure, research and development, education, environmental policies, crime and worker compensation.

North Carolina outranked most states for business incubation, landing at 9th in the country based on factors including venture capital investment, unionization rates and the minimum wage. But the state ranked 35th for environmental policy, based on carbon and toxic emissions.

Factors in North Carolina's favor, according to the report, include worker compensation rates, the state's composite bond rating, infrastructure including airlines and academic research and development. But relatively high crime rates placed the state 40th in the nation, and the state's overall score was hurt by considerations including the percentage of the population without health insurance, the percentage of the population over age 24 without high-school degrees, the unemployment rate and the infant mortality rate.

The state's overall index was 4.9. Massachusetts ranked at No. 1, with an index of 7.28, while Mississippi ranked 50th, with an index of 3.02.

A Greensboro real-estate office will hold a dance for students from Eastern Guilford using money slated for its holiday office party, according to a news release.

Prudential Carolinas Realty in Greensboro is providing a venue at Bur-mill Park, a DJ, refreshments and decorations for a Winter Wonderland dance Dec. 22 from 8 p.m. to midnight. The dance will be free for all Eastern Guilford students, who were displaced when a fire destroyed their school building Dec. 1.

School officials moved the winter dance, typically closer to Valentine's Day, to December to give students a chance to gather now that they've been split between two different school buildings for classes.

Big Lots and Ben & Jerry's also are donating items for the dance.

Lexair Electronic Sales Corporation has moved its corporate office, in Greensboro, from 4713 High Point Road to 4807-B Koger Blvd., the company announced in a news release.

The company, which deals in headsets, telephones and audio-conferencing equipment, will keep its phone number and zip code.

The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services announced today that the first statewide conference of the Agritourism Networking Association will tkae place Jan. 19 at the Caraway Conference Center in Asheboro.

The one-day conference will cost $20 for ANA members and $30 for non-members and is open to famers and winery and vineyard owners. Registration forms are due Jan. 4.

The Guilford County Hotel/Motel Association has picked its 2007 board of directors, the group announced in a news release today.

The executive directors of the non-profit organization, which represents the hospitality industry here, are:

President: Chris Adams, general manager of the Ashford Suites
Vice President: Joe Varipapa, general manager of the Comfort Suites Airport
Treasurer: Pam Vargas, director of sales and marketing for the Greensboro Marriott Downtown
Secretary: Kevin Raper, general manager of the Park Lane Hotel Four Seasons

Other directors include:

Frank Larson, resident manager of the Sheraton Four Seasons
Kevin Archer, general manager of the Courtyard by Marriott, High Point
Debbie Prince, sales rep for City Transfer & Storage/Atlas Van Lines
Sanjeev Deshmukh, director of operations with BPR Properties
Barbara Parris, catering/special events manager with Bryan Park Golf & Conference Center
John Rothkopf, general manager of the Greensboro-High Point Airport Marriott
Henri Fourrier, president and chief executive officer of the Greensboro Convention & Visitors Bureau
Charlotte Young, president and CEO of the High Point Convention & Visitors Bureau

The HR Group, a Greensboro-based human-resource consulting company, plans to open an on-site training division next month, according to a news release from the company.

The division, called "HRG Academy," will offer customizable classes on topics including human resources, employee relations and professional development. The course schedule and registration will be available on the HR Group's Web site.

The HR firm, which relocated to 216-4 S. Swing Road earlier this year, also has picked up a third business condo in its building, said Patsy Wiggins, the company's executive vice president and chief operating officer. More than 30 people work for the firm, Wiggins said.

Sales of existing homes in the state fell 4 percent last month compared to November of 2005, the N.C. Association of Realtors reported today. November sales also were down 11 percent compared to October of this year.

But existing home sales growth remains positive year-to-date, up 4 percent over the first 11 months of 2005. Nearly 130,000 existing homes have sold in the state this year, compared to 125,299 during the first 11 months of last year.

Last month, 10,073 homes sold, compared to 10,543 in November 2005. The average sales price in November of this year was $217,615, up from $214,718 during the same month last year. Total sales dollars last month came to $2.26 billion.

The average sales price, year-to-date, is $214,504, up from $201,432 during the first 11 months of last year. Total sales dollars for the year, through November, are above $26.36 billion.

RALEIGH — The state’s workforce grew during November, but so did the unemployment rate, according to figures released by the Employment Security Commission on Friday.

Seasonally adjusted employment increased by nearly 12,900 workers last month, as the state continued to post job gains in hospitality, education and health care. Total employment has grown more than 3 percent since November 2005.

But the jobless rate also grew, rising to 4.9 percent from 4.7 percent in October and exceeding the national rate of 4.5 percent for last month. Despite the increase, the state’s unemployment rate was lower than in November 2005, when it hit 5.1 percent.