FedEx announced on Friday that the new Hub at PTIA will not open this coming summer as planned but rather in the Fall of 2009 with far fewer employees that originally planned. Current plans are to move the 160 employees from the current PTIA facility over to the new hub in the summer with an additional 200 employees being hired sometime in the fall.

In case you missed my weekend post Staples is offering QuickBooks Pro for FREE today!

If the link is broken it’s

Word is Staples will offer QuickBooks Pro on their website for $199 with a $40 instant rebate and then a $159.99 mail in rebate. Check www.staples.com first thing Monday as how can you pass this up?

With just months to go before the first pitch financial issues at the Winston-Salem Ballpark Project have led to the owner, Billy Prim, to ask for $16 Million to cover shortfalls due to a 65 percent increase in the stadium cost. The project original set at $22.6 million is now projected at $38 million with partner Andrew Filipowski, divesting himself out of the project.

It has been reported that Filipowski has had trouble with creditors calling in debt due to his exposure with his own businesses and the ballpark. Southern Community Bank called in $4 million while BB&T has sought to cover their $4 million line of credit with Filipowski. Prim has been trying to find further investors for the ballpark and team but so far the likes of Richard Childress Racing and ISP Sports which so far have not panned out. Both Prim and Filipowski are co-founders of Blue Rhino Corporation and served as Directors per proxy statements and LinkedIn profiles.

So once again we have a private business with it’s hand out to the local tax payers. Reports have the request at $16 million which would be on top of the already $12 million the city provided in funds. Repayment of the original $12 million was to be from ticket sales and taxes on the stadium however this was all contingent on the ballpark being completed by March of 2010. Just how many tickets will have to be sold to collect $28 million?

Sources: LinkedIn, Winston-Salem Journal, The Business Journal

If you currently use a Smartphone with Verizon you may want to go by the store or call customer service ASAP to confirm what packages are available to you for what phones because as of November 14th, 2008 Verizon will require a $29.99 data plan for all data capable phones. Current Verizon customers on a plan with no data plan but a Web 2.0 phone will not be required to change their current plan however if you go into Verizon on November 14th and want that high end phone which also has Internet Access you WILL BE required to buy a data plan.

This is at least the rumor based on a “leaked” document from Verizon and it appears legit enough to be worth confirming what your options are. Verizon is slated to release multiple “SmartPhones” including the Blackberry Storm and with this plan change going into effect on the 14th it’s safe to say that’s the day most of these phones will be released. Granted what use is a Storm without data however many people prefer the higher end phones so they can get things like an MP3 player, speaker phone, Bluetooth, etc which very often only comes on the phones which also support Internet Access. My phone falls into this class and although it is several years old and has Mobile Web I have no data plan as I don’t want Internet Access on this phone. If I was to walk into Verizon on the 14th and bought my same model I would have to not only pay for our nationwide phone service we use but also another $30 for something I have no use for or at least that’s how it appears.

So if your thinking of changing phones or even want to lock in the current Pay As You Go plans you better get over to Verizon before the 14th:

With a falling stock price and horrible overall market conditions Bank Of Granite has announced they will not complete an announced 5-for-4 stock split. The split was to take place for equity holders on October 17. Last month Granite announced it was suspending it’s dividend until further notice.

North Carolina will spend some $12 Million to buy Grandfather Mountain and some 2,600 surrounding acres. Owned since the 50’s by the Morton family, Hugh Morton was determined to keep the land from being over developed. Plans on how the park will be ran have not been finalized but Crae Morton will head a non-profit which will continue to do research on the mountain.

In the latest round of banking news associated with the financial crises of bad loans Wachovia will “sell” it’s banking arm to Citigroup. Citigroup will take over some $42 billion in loan loses from Wachovia after that company has seen it’s share price fall some 75% this year. Over the weekend pressure mounted to seize Wachovia’s assists and sell off the parts to interested parties which included Citigroup, Wells Fargo and others. The loan losses at Wachovia started racking up after it’s purchase of Golden West Financial which held much of it’s paper in the overpriced California mortgage market. As a result of that alone with other missteps such as the AG Edwards acquisition the long time CEO, G. Kennedy Thompson, was removed in June but by then it was to late for Wachovia.

Wachovia stock closed at $10 on Friday however expectations are for Citigroup to offer less than $2 on Monday.