Leoneda Inge

Most of the computers sold in the United States are made somewhere else in the world.  That includes computers made by Lenovo.  But yesterday, the computer giant announced it will soon open its first U.S. based manufacturing plant.  And that plant will be in North Carolina.

Lenovo has been moving like lightening during the past 18 months.  The company has gone from 400 retail stores to four-thousand.  And it’s paid off quarter after quarter.  David Schmook is President of Lenovo for North America. 

A new report from the North Carolina Budget and Tax Center says it’s time for the state to collect a more reliable revenue source than the sales tax.

The sales tax is 30-percent of North Carolina’s total tax revenue – that’s about six billion dollars.  But – the non-profit Budget and Tax Center says the state needs to broaden its tax structure.  Alexandra Sirota is director of the Budget and Tax Center. She says it’s time to tax services to help raise revenue instead of counting so heavily on material goods.

The rise in data centers across the state is the topic of discussion today in Winston-Salem.  Leoneda Inge reports.

Most of the biggest data centers are in the western part of the state and in Research Triangle Park.  Big data storage warehouses as in IBM, SAS, Google, Apple and Facebook.  Brooks Raiford is CEO of the North Carolina Technology Association.  NCTA is hosting today’s panel discussion on data centers and why they’re good for the state – even though he admits, they don’t produce a lot of jobs.

Community members, activists and friends will meet near Warrenton - northeast of Raleigh - this weekend to mark a historic milestone in the nation’s environmental justice movement.

The Environmental Justice movement was born in Warren County.  The mostly black community of Afton stood up – and laid down in the streets – to try to stop the state from digging a P-C-B contaminated landfill where they lived – as seen on WBTV in 1982.

Voice One:  I don’t want this stuff throwed in my water!

Roanoke Rapids officials are hoping they’ve found the right mix of games and entertainment to create an economic engine for the city near I-95 on the Virginia border.  Roanoke Rapids spent millions of dollars on a theatre named after Dolly Parton’s brother – it failed.  And that was tough for a community that has already been hit hard.  Mayor Emery Doughtie.

The latest Duke University CFO Magazine survey shows rising pessimism among companies in the US and abroad.

A North Carolina research firm says it's taken a significant step toward making solar energy a widely-marketable source of electricity. RTI International says its new solar cells use an ink-like material produced at much lower cost than traditional silicon panels. Jay Lewis is a senior research scientist with the RTP nonprofit.

Numbers released today by the employment firm Manpower show a favorable job market for North Carolina.  Leoneda Inge reports.

The North Carolina Democratic delegation says it’s pumped up and ready to return home and motivate voters.

William Flyth of Brunswick County says since retirement he’s been busy working to register voters. The retired chemist says he’s ready to work even harder.

William Flyth:  I started get out the vote campaign among African American churches before I arrived and I plan to double down on that when I return home.

President Barack Obama is preparing to address the nation tonight and make his plea for “Four More Years.”  In 2008 – many analysts say it was the African American vote that put the president over the top in battleground states like North Carolina.  But is this constituency as “fired up” and “ready to go” in 2012?  Leoneda Inge reports from the Democratic convention in Charlotte.