Well today is the day Hanes Mall will start kicking the kids out after 6PM unless they are accompanied by an adult, or so they say. The interesting thing to watch for is how will this policy be applied because who is to say a 16 year old is 16 or an 18 year old is 18? Will mall security go around asking for I.D.’s and kick anyone out that doesn’t have one? Will teenagers with their disposable cash walk away in protest to the policy?

Multiple websites have shown up calling for a boycott or repeal of the policy and even if this doesn’t have traction is the negative publicity something any retail center want when times are as tough as these?

FaceBook – Boycotting Hanes Mall

Hanes Mall Petition Site

Of course neither site appears to have much traction so maybe it will be much to do about nothing as the saying goes. There is even less traffic on this within the Twitter crowd we one would expect to be abuzz if the younger crowd was upset about this so one might assume the number of “kids” Hanes Mall is ejecting is limited to a small group of teens.

Word is Dell will keep the Winston-Salem plant open for a few more months allowing around 400 workers a little more breathing room. No further information is out there as of yet but I’m sure we will see local leaders take all the credit somehow.

Dell has informed the state that it believes it met the requirements during it’s years of operating in North Carolina and will not repay those monies. Governor Bev Purdue and other state representatives have said Dell would be forced to repay all the incentive money they were given however Dell has claimed some $6 million is covered in the agreements and will not be repaid. The Governor’s Office has released a “corrected” statement saying Dell may be able to keep some North Carolina taxpayer money.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation, Office of The Inspector General has informed Smith Reynolds Airport that it is in breach of it’s grant agreement for runway improvements. Smith Reynolds received a grant back in 1997 for those improvements and contracted Mainline Contractors out of Raleigh which reportedly was not keeping up with payments to sub-contractors and subsequently filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

The airport and it’s Director, Larry Scantlin, were informed of the pending investigation on August 17th with a formal letter from the Department of Transportation in which Richard Walls, Director of Aviation, states:

That notice goes on to state that if the airport cannot address the above issues the “Department will take legal action.” On Tuesday it appears the Office of the Inspector has judged that the airport is at fault and it appears this means the airport will be forced to repay grant money, pay subcontractors for unpaid work or a combination of the two. Tom McKim, the chairman of the Airport Commission of Forsyth County disagrees with the state report and said:

"Obviously we disagree with (the report), and we believe that our contract with Mainline satisfied our obligation under the grant," McKim said. "The efforts we made to monitor what Mainline did with respect to payments were also adequate."  JournalNow

It appears former CEO William Rodgers has signed away any interest he has in PACE Airlines. In unconfirmed reports Lee Booth has taken what assets were left, primarily FAA Certifications down to a building in Burlington. Former V.P. Stuart Carnie was quoted as saying Rodgers has signed over his interest in the company last week to undisclosed “investors” but all fingers point to Lee Booth. It has been posted on other sites that Booth was the primary investor in PACE near the end and has a history in the aviation field from his ownership of Taylorcraft, a small personal aircraft company he moved to Greensboro back in 1988. Of course rumors abound however the general belief is that Rodgers sold part of PACE to Booth back in September and it was the ownership by Booth that kept an interested party in Dallas from assuming PACE as a whole. The party or group in Dallas wanted 100% ownership and Booth either didn’t want out or wanted more for the assets causing the deal to fall through.

Stuart Carnie further went on to say he had revoked his interest in Rodger’s bond resulting in William Rodgers being rebooked into Forsyth County jail where he remains. This Post has been edited at the request of a person claiming to be Harlan Cobert and due to the content of that email request it is within reason to believe such request was made by him. Until such time as the objection that was raised is shown to be factual by verifiable reference any reference to that issue will be removed from this thread and site.

So Mayor Joines has told Dell he expects them to repay some 26.5 Million Dollars in direct payments and expenses linked to bring Dell to North Carolina and in theory it appears Dell has agreed in their reply letter. Of course this does not include any of the cost associated with road projects completed for Dell, wine and dines that surely took place, travel by city and county officials, etc, etc.

In what was repeated over and over by every news source in the state Governor Bev Perdue was quoted as saying she expected Dell to pay back every “red cent” when in fact she never said that but rather she would “will go to bed every night hoping to get every red cent back that Dell has received.” Slight difference in the two which is neither here or there as the Governor now understands this is not the case and Dell will pay back on 1.5 Million of the 8 Million or more the state gave away. Of course this just refers to the money the state gave away and not the millions both Winston-Salem and Forsyth County handed over.

Governor Perdue may need to wake up to the real world.

More news to follow but yes folks it’s all over, that Boondoggle, multi-million dollar tax give away is closing it’s doors!

Here’s the follow-up. Dell will lay off 600 workers by next month with the remaining workers to be laid on January. The number Dell cites is 935 total however some dispute there are that many employees currently at the plant. Frank Miller, Vice President for Public Business Unit Supply Chain, was quoted as saying Dell will meet all agreements it had in place with North Carolina, Forsyth County and Winston-Salem which should be interesting to see since the bulk of the agreement was to employ some 1,700 workers which it never did. There was at least $37 million in incentives directly given to Dell to locate in North Carolina not to mention the millions of hidden cost in road construction, rezoning, and such.

“The opening of this facility means hundreds of hardworking North Carolinians now have good jobs that bring better benefits and better skills to the transitioning Piedmont Triad economy,” said Gov. Easley. “In addition, the Dell project will provide more than $700 million in net revenue over 20 years to our state. This project makes good economic sense for North Carolina and we are proud to have such a well-respected global company in our state.” October 2005

Oh well just one more giant tax giveaway to private business. Of course this will certainly result in changes to the FedEx Hub plans which have already been pushed back in terms of it’s staffing. The loss of another 900 jobs on top of the 300 from PACE Airlines really spells out the trend for North Carolina employment which at this point is already above 10.8% and one of the highest in the nation.

On a brighter note Winston-Salem has released some of the 50 pages of documents associated with the tax payer funded baseball park so Billy Prim will get his nearly $50 million dollar stadium which he said would not cost the tax payers a dime.