Conditions from Wildfire Remain a Problem for Drivers
Officials from the National Weather Service (NWS) have issued smoke and fog warnings for Brunswick and Columbus Counties in North Carolina, in addition to Horry and Georgetown County in South Carolina, due to the still-active wildfires in the North Myrtle Beach area.
County officials as far north as Onslow County, NC have reported smoke from the fires. The NWS cautions that both dense smoke and ash will likely continue to be blown inland by the sea breezes through the
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
One more Bank down
Cape Fear Bank has become the 22nd bank in the U.S. to fail this year, and the first to fail in North Carolina since 1993.
Cape Fear, which had eight branches and $492 million in total assets, was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday. It has been reopened today under the control of First Federal Savings and Loan of Charleston, S.C.
Cape Fear’s depositors are protected by FDIC insurance, and the agency estimates the bank’s collapse will cost its insurance fund $131 million.
Yet another example, which may lead to, more Banks opting into the TARP Funds that they are considering opting out of.
Cape Fear, which had eight branches and $492 million in total assets, was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday. It has been reopened today under the control of First Federal Savings and Loan of Charleston, S.C.
Cape Fear’s depositors are protected by FDIC insurance, and the agency estimates the bank’s collapse will cost its insurance fund $131 million.
Yet another example, which may lead to, more Banks opting into the TARP Funds that they are considering opting out of.
Monday, April 6, 2009
NC employed, unemployed may both face no insurance
North Carolina's unemployment rate, already at its highest level in the three-decade history of jobless records, is forecast to keep climbing for the rest of this year, cutting off employer-subsidized health insurance coverage for tens of thousands of workers.
But thousands more who manage to hold onto their jobs may lose their insurance anyway as premiums push small businesses into a choice between offering health care or laying off employees. Other workers may see deductibles rise so high they'll be able to count on their insurance for little more than catastrophic emergencies, said Dr. Kevin Schulman, a physician who directs the health sector management program at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business,
Rising unemployment will "increase the number of uninsured going forward and will increase the number of people who can't afford to use their insurance," Schulman said Monday. "It's going to have an impact on people in North Carolina, an impact on people who lose their insurance, an impact on people who work for small employers, and on small employers to create new jobs going forward."
Less than half of the state's small companies are able to afford health insurance coverage for their workers, said Gregg Thompson, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group that represents about 7,500 small-business owners. That's down from about six in 10 North Carolina firms with fewer than 50 workers in 2006, according to the North Carolina Institute of Medicine.
Small companies that continued coverage this year were hit with premiums that were 40 percent to 300 percent higher than last year, Thompson said.
"I have heard some of them (employers) say that if they are able to keep their insurance they have to cut hours back on their employees because (insurance is) the top expenditure in the business," Thompson said. "They're cutting where they can to balance their books when the premiums go up like they have."
One example of the hard choices for small business is Charlotte Post Publishing Co., which publishes newspapers in Charlotte and the Triangle that focus on black communities. Premiums for the 15-employee operation rose 24 percent last year, leaving publisher Gerald Johnson facing a dilemma.
"We're either going to have to start laying off people or get rid of health care," Johnson told Gov. Beverly Perdue and the Obama administration's top health care reform aide at a health care forum last week in Greensboro. The forum was one of five being held around the country as the Obama administration draws attention to getting health care reform approved in Congress this year, with the ultimate goal of universal coverage.
But thousands more who manage to hold onto their jobs may lose their insurance anyway as premiums push small businesses into a choice between offering health care or laying off employees. Other workers may see deductibles rise so high they'll be able to count on their insurance for little more than catastrophic emergencies, said Dr. Kevin Schulman, a physician who directs the health sector management program at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business,
Rising unemployment will "increase the number of uninsured going forward and will increase the number of people who can't afford to use their insurance," Schulman said Monday. "It's going to have an impact on people in North Carolina, an impact on people who lose their insurance, an impact on people who work for small employers, and on small employers to create new jobs going forward."
Less than half of the state's small companies are able to afford health insurance coverage for their workers, said Gregg Thompson, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, a trade group that represents about 7,500 small-business owners. That's down from about six in 10 North Carolina firms with fewer than 50 workers in 2006, according to the North Carolina Institute of Medicine.
Small companies that continued coverage this year were hit with premiums that were 40 percent to 300 percent higher than last year, Thompson said.
"I have heard some of them (employers) say that if they are able to keep their insurance they have to cut hours back on their employees because (insurance is) the top expenditure in the business," Thompson said. "They're cutting where they can to balance their books when the premiums go up like they have."
One example of the hard choices for small business is Charlotte Post Publishing Co., which publishes newspapers in Charlotte and the Triangle that focus on black communities. Premiums for the 15-employee operation rose 24 percent last year, leaving publisher Gerald Johnson facing a dilemma.
"We're either going to have to start laying off people or get rid of health care," Johnson told Gov. Beverly Perdue and the Obama administration's top health care reform aide at a health care forum last week in Greensboro. The forum was one of five being held around the country as the Obama administration draws attention to getting health care reform approved in Congress this year, with the ultimate goal of universal coverage.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Suspect's wife sorry for NC nursing home shooting
The estranged wife of a man charged with gunning down seven residents and a nurse at a North Carolina nursing home said Wednesday she wishes she had been the victim instead. Wanda Gay Neal told WRAL-TV she has apologized to some families of those killed.
"The ones that would speak to me, I told them I was sorry," said the 43-year-old nurse's assistant. "I wish it had been me, instead of them."
Authorities say Neal's husband, Robert Stewart, 45, shot and killed eight people at Pinelake Health and Rehab on Sunday before a Carthage police officer shot him and ended the rampage. Stewart was wounded but survived and has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder.
Neal said she was working in the facility's Alzheimer's unit when she heard on a loudspeaker that a man was inside with a gun. She said she and her co-workers began moving residents into a TV room.
"We barricaded the door. We put down the blinds, and we sat and cried and hugged each other," Neal told WRAL. "We tried to keep them comforted as much as we could."
Neal said that while trying to go back for more patients she ducked into a bathroom after hearing the gunman was heading down the hallway toward her. Neal's mother, Margaret Neal, said in an interview Tuesday that Stewart was unable to reach the Alzheimer's unit because it was locked with a passcode, which Stewart did not know.
Wanda Neal said she believed that her husband was trying to hurt her by killing patients because he couldn't reach her.
"What kind of man goes after somebody in a wheelchair? That's a coward," she said.
Court documents show the couple married twice, but Neal's mother said Tuesday Neal had recently left him moved back to a home on the family property in Robbins, about half an hour from the site of the shootings.
Authorities have declined to speculate on a motive but say they are looking into whether the shooting was "domestic-related."
Defense lawyer Frank Wells said he met Stewart on Tuesday for the first time at North Carolina's maximum security Central Prison in the visitation area, a series of booths with reinforced windows between prisoners and visitors.
"He is being treated for his wound at the prison hospital," Wells said. "He was able to come down to the visitation booth and meet with me wearing a hospital gown."
Wells wouldn't discuss Stewart's frame of mind or what they talked about.
"It's the beginning of understanding the case against Mr. Stewart," he said. "There is an awful lot of work to do."
"The ones that would speak to me, I told them I was sorry," said the 43-year-old nurse's assistant. "I wish it had been me, instead of them."
Authorities say Neal's husband, Robert Stewart, 45, shot and killed eight people at Pinelake Health and Rehab on Sunday before a Carthage police officer shot him and ended the rampage. Stewart was wounded but survived and has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder.
Neal said she was working in the facility's Alzheimer's unit when she heard on a loudspeaker that a man was inside with a gun. She said she and her co-workers began moving residents into a TV room.
"We barricaded the door. We put down the blinds, and we sat and cried and hugged each other," Neal told WRAL. "We tried to keep them comforted as much as we could."
Neal said that while trying to go back for more patients she ducked into a bathroom after hearing the gunman was heading down the hallway toward her. Neal's mother, Margaret Neal, said in an interview Tuesday that Stewart was unable to reach the Alzheimer's unit because it was locked with a passcode, which Stewart did not know.
Wanda Neal said she believed that her husband was trying to hurt her by killing patients because he couldn't reach her.
"What kind of man goes after somebody in a wheelchair? That's a coward," she said.
Court documents show the couple married twice, but Neal's mother said Tuesday Neal had recently left him moved back to a home on the family property in Robbins, about half an hour from the site of the shootings.
Authorities have declined to speculate on a motive but say they are looking into whether the shooting was "domestic-related."
Defense lawyer Frank Wells said he met Stewart on Tuesday for the first time at North Carolina's maximum security Central Prison in the visitation area, a series of booths with reinforced windows between prisoners and visitors.
"He is being treated for his wound at the prison hospital," Wells said. "He was able to come down to the visitation booth and meet with me wearing a hospital gown."
Wells wouldn't discuss Stewart's frame of mind or what they talked about.
"It's the beginning of understanding the case against Mr. Stewart," he said. "There is an awful lot of work to do."
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