News & Information

Wake Tech Honored by US Small Business Administration

Staff Writer — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:11:18 +0000

The U.S. Small Business Administraion has named Wake Technical Community College the North Carolina Small Business Resource Partner of the Year.

The award reflects Wake Tech’s outstanding support for small businesses in Wake county, where the school operates three small business and entrepreneurial centers. The centers provide classes, workshops and individual counseling to small business owners at little or no cost.

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Progress Energy Wins Approval of Residential Lighting Plan

Staff Writer — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:09:09 +0000

According to documents filed by the North Carolina Unitilities Commission, Progress Energy has recently won approval for a proposed energy efficiency program.

The program applies to residential lighting and will provide incentives for customers to buy energy efficient lighting products, such as compact flourescent light bulbs. Progress Energy plans to provide incentives to cooperating retailers, who will pass on some of the savings to their customers.

The utility company is required to provide further information to the commission within 10 days, and will include more detail about discounts for customers. Progress Energy is based in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Forbes’ Five-star Rating and AAA’s Five Diamond Awarded to Umstead, Fearrington

Staff Writer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:55:25 +0000

For the second straight year, The Umstead Hotel in Cary and The Fearrington House Country Inn in Pittsboro have been awarded the highest designations in their industry. Both have earned AAA’s Five Diamond award and the Forbes Travel Guide five-star rating. The local hotels are the only winners in North Carolina, and two of only 37 hotels nationwide to receive the top rating.

AAA also gave The Fearrington House Restaurant a Five Diamond award. This is the 15th time that Fearrington has earned AAA’s top honors for both its hotel and its restaurant.

Since opening in 2007, The Umstead has won three consecutive Five Diamond awards and two straight five-star ratings. The Fearrington House has won 16 straight Five Diamond awards and has earned the five-star rating every year since 2000

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Long-term Mortgage Rates Fall Below 5%…Again!

Staff Writer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:47:01 +0000

The average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell back below 5 percent last week, according the weekly rate report from Freddie Mac.

The average rate dropped to 4.98 percent, from 5.03 percent the previous week. One year ago, 30-year mortgages averaged 6.20 percent.

15-year fixed-rate mortgages also fell to an average of 4.4 percent this week, again besting one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, which currently average 4.47 percent

Freddie Mac attributes the reductions to strong refinancing activity in the first three quarters of this year.

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CIO Survey Says Red Hat, Google Take First Place Among Software Vendors

Staff Writer — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:55:08 +0000

The results of the latest CIO Insight magazine poll of 650 chief information officers and other IT executives places Raleigh’s Red Hat in a tie with Google for first place among the top 40 software vendors, based on value and reliability. This is Red Hat’s third time in the top position in four years, and places them ahead of industry giants Cisco (WebEx), Citrix, Adobe, Microsoft, Novell, IBM, Lenovo and others. Cisco, IBM and Lenovo are all based in, or conoduct major operations in, the Research Triangle.

In addition to scoring well on the questions posed in the study, 84 percent of respondents indicated that they expect Red Hat’s revenue to continue to increase.

Red Hat, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, provides software and services to support the open-source Linux operating system.

Prestigious Study Ranks Raleigh-Cary Metro #3 for Small Business Startups

Staff Writer — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:05:38 +0000

A new study by Fortune Small Business magazine and the Kauffman Foundation ranks the Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area #3 among the nation’s largest metro areas.

The study’s profile of Raleigh-Cary cites the area’s high standard of living and well-educated employee base. In addition, housing is more affordable compared with competing regions in the technology market.

The Research Triangle Park, and the presence of three major research universities — North Carolina State, North Carolina and Duke — also strengthened the ranking, representing public and private assets having global influence.

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North Carolina Hospitals Score High in Industry Study

Staff Writer — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:02:28 +0000

According to the 2009 "HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study", North Carolina scored well in all areas of the study, and Rex Healthcare in particular received the hightest overall score for clinical excellence.

The 12th annual study involved 40 million Medicare hospitalization records from 2006 to 2008, and reviewed mortality rates in several areas: cardiac surgery, coronary interventional procedures, critical care, gastrointestinal, heart attack, heart failure, pulmonary care and stroke. While North Carolina’s mortality rates fell in all areas in this study, there was significant improvement in cardiac surgery, pulmonary care and stroke.

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Southwest to Add Orlando Flight at RDU Airport

Staff Writer — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:32:47 +0000

From March 14th to May 7th next year Southwest Airlines will run a fourth daily round trip flight between RDU and Orlando. This will raise the airline’s daily departures at Raleigh-Durham International Airport to 30.

In all, Southwest will be adding 52 round trip flights to its operations, a move made possible by winter’s lower air traffic and thereby shorter flight times.

According to the RDU Airport Authority, more than 9.7 million passengers traveled through the Raleigh-Durham International Airport in 2008, one of the highest passenger counts on record. The airport serves a region that consistently leads the nation in surveys related to technology, new business large and small, higher education and quality of life. Cities and locales include Raleigh, Cary, Wake Forest, Durham, Chapel Hill, Apex, Morrisville, Fuquay-Varina and others.

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Duke University Hospital to Launch Major Expansion on Campus

Staff Writer — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:32:28 +0000

Construction will begin this November on an expansion of the Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. The hospital needs new space to resolve a current problem with overcrowding, and to prepare for projected demand. The addition is estimated at about 850,000 square feet, and will be the location of a new cancer center (opens in 2012) and a new patient tower (opens in 2013). Total cost for the project is expected to exceed $700 million.

Duke University Hospital is highly regarded throughout the world for excellence in clinical services, research and training. In addition to its flagship hospital in Durham, Duke University Health System owns Duke Raleigh Hospital and operates Durham Regional Hospital.

Triangle Universities Among America’s Best Colleges

Staff Writer — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:19:41 +0000

The three largest universities in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Area excel in the ‘Great Schools, Great Prices’ category in U.S. News & World Report’s latest annual ranking of ‘America’s Best Colleges.’ The category ranks schools based on their academic quality compared to the total cost after a student receives grants and financial aid based on need. Nationally, Duke was ranked No. 9, while UNC was 14th and NCSU was 21st. Among public universities, UNC was No. 1 and NCSU was No. 3.