BCR's Daily Fishwrap Report for October 21, 2009

Don't forget tonight's Durham Bulls National Championship celebration at the DBAP (6:00-8:00pm), your chance to meet a couple of Bulls players, see their championship trophies, and enjoy food, entertainment and whatnot for the first 500 fans -- plus, you can get added to the Priority List for the Tampa Bay Rays exhibition game coming up this spring.

In today's news:

Friends of Durham Still Incumbents' BFF: The Friends of Durham endorsed Mayor Bill Bell and Councilman Mike Woodard yesterday, giving the two incumbents the support of the moderate-conservative Friends along with the liberal People's Alliance. Howard Clement earned all three PACs' endorsement, while Cora Cole-McFadden earned the PA and Friends endorsement with Donald Hughes picking up the Durham Committee. (Herald-Sun)

Durham Tech Adds $300k for Dropouts: Durham Tech has won a $300,000 grant to offer services to high school dropouts from the Gates Foundation; the program will-provide intensive services (including transportation, child care, and meals if needed) to 16- and 17-year-old dropouts. The "Gateway to College" initiative will occupy its own facility at DTCC. (Herald-Sun)

Cree Triples Profit: Durham-based LED lighting firm Cree announced a 20% rise in revenue year-over-year and a more than tripling of profits over last year's tally, finding its stock price at a five-year high. The company, whose energy-conserving product is a likely winner in the emerging green-focused economic sector, recently announced plans to add hundreds of Durham-based jobs. (N&O)

Byker Leaving CPAC: Land use attorney Patrick Byker wasn't reappointed to the Capital Program Advisory Committee, with his seat going to a former engineer whom Councilfolk Woodard and Diane Catotti argued was a better fit for a seat designated with priority to a person with project management experience, while Eugene Brown felt Byker's current involvement in the 751 assemblage project meant more distance might be better at this time. Byker noted that he'd reapplied only "in the event that no other folks put in an application;" the attorney drew votes from Bell, Cole-McFadden and Clement for reappointment. (Herald-Sun)

Home Sales Up: Home sales looked better in the Triangle last month, though a decline in new building permits nationally and weakness on the high end locally (versus a strong low end of the market) leads some to wonder how much of the market's improvement is due to the first-time home buyer tax credit that expires soon. (N&O)

Sanford Gets $5.75m from Favorite Son: Duke trustee David Rubenstein has given $5.75 million to the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke, one building of which bears his name. The gift completes the fundraising effort required to make Sanford an independent Duke school. (Herald-Sun, via Duke News Service)

Comments

[DuRa]

If I might confuse my sports metaphors – did the Durham Bulls marketing team swallow their whistles? Why is no one talking about the our 2009 National AAA Champs? This is a big deal and really cool for the city of Durham. There should be a ticker tape parade down Blackwell, or at least some more community support.

[Bull City Rising]

@DuRa: Hope you had a chance to make it to the event tonight. A lot of the community may have moved on since the season's end, but it was a great celebration of the team's year. I've just posted a few thoughts and photos from the night.