News

Commissioner Wants Watson Gone

RALEIGH — Mort Hurst, chairman of the Martin County Board of Commissioners, says he will spearhead an effort among the 16 counties represented by the North Carolina's Northeast Partnership to remove Rick Watson as the nonprofit's president and chief executive officer. Related Northeast Partnership Articles: Pasquotank: Watson should resign Today: Mitch Kokai live in The Locker Room on the State Board of Elections hearings. Read Mitch's blog posts on the hearings from Wednesday. Thursday's blog posts. New Feature! Who's Who at the Board of Elections Hearings

Paul Chesser
News

AG Announces Corruption Fight

RALEIGH — N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper on Thursday appealed to state legislators to provide more tools for state investigators and prosecutors to ferret out public corruption. Board of Elections to Investigate BlackBy Mitch KokaiRALEIGH — The N.C. Board of Elections decided Thursday that it will conduct a three-day hearing in February on House Speaker Jim Black’s campaign finances. Board Chairman Larry Leake says the hearing will help the board address some “information that causes us some concern.” Related NC Ethics & Corruption Articles: Black 'glad…attorney general agrees with me' Blust: '(Cooper's) saying things I've been saying for 10 years'

Paul Chesser
News

Most Partnerships Avoid Conflicts

RALEIGH — Unlike Rick Watson of North Carolina’s Northeast Partnership, some leaders of the state’s other regional economic development groups say they cannot imagine situations in which they would seek public money for businesses that they are trying to recruit and/or work for. Some of them say they have explicit policies against such conflicts of interest.

Paul Chesser
News

Public Funds Key Private Projects

ROANOKE RAPIDS — Economic development officials in northeast North Carolina put a pretty face on the groundbreaking in mid-November of one of three projects planned around Roanoke Rapids. Dolly Parton was there. So was brother Randy. But the stark reality of the projects is that so far, taxpayers appear to be the only ones paying a pretty penny for the projects, and conflicts of interest abound.

Don Carrington

Help Support Non-profit Journalism & Donate Today

News

Parton Project Off to Shaky Start

RALEIGH — A legal opinion permitting state-funded economic developer Rick Watson to simultaneously work for Randy Parton's entertainment company, which he recruited for a Roanoke Rapids project, appears to be based on the faulty assumption that Parton's company would receive no funds from Watson's state-funded organizations.

Don Carrington
News

Partnership Head Helps Himself

RALEIGH — A deal arranged by North Carolina's Northeast Partnership president Rick Watson to work with country musician Randy Parton is not the first case in which Watson has tried to become involved with a company that his public agency is trying to help. Watson, who leads many variations of the partnership, has in the past sought either a personal investment stake or other benefits from the businesses he has tried to help locate in northeastern North Carolina.

Paul Chesser
News

Conflicts Surround Auto Center

RALEIGH — Rep. Michael Wray, a Northampton County Democrat, has been a strong supporter of state funding for an automotive research center to be located on land in close proximity to a tract he owns in Northampton County. Access to the 610-acre tract under option by Northampton County for the proposed Advanced Vehicle Research Center would be via a road that goes through Wray’s tract. Wray and a partner bought the property in 2001, just prior to Lowe’s Home Improvement Company purchasing a nearby tract for a distribution center.

Don Carrington
News

Privaris Head Helped Other Project

RALEIGH — The president of a fingerprint technology company, which received more than $300,000 from the state Tobacco Trust Fund despite creating no new permanent jobs, helped the state-funded North Carolina's Northeast Partnership with another project just as he launched his own business. Barry Johnson, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Privaris, Inc., compiled an evaluation report in August 2001 on now-defunct biotechnology company CropTech Corporation, at the request of the Northeast Partnership's executive director, Rick Watson. Like Privaris, CropTech sought millions of dollars in financial incentives from North Carolina.

Paul Chesser
News

Final Report Lacks New Details

RALEIGH — The state’s Tobacco Trust Fund Commission closed its file last week on a fingerprint security business that it funded, even though little or no new information was provided in a revised final report about a project the company conducted for the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles. Privaris, Inc. received $307,575 from the commission through a grant to the Martin County Economic Development Corporation, ostensibly in exchange for starting business in Williamston with 10 to 15 employees. Privaris was to be paid for determining whether its technology could help DMV enhance the security of drivers' licensing for transporters of hazardous cargo.

Paul Chesser
News

Auto Research Center in Jeopardy

RALEIGH — Boosters of an automotive research center planned for Northampton County, who were hoping for $30 million in taxpayer funding over the next two years, are trying to get their pet project back on track after it was left out of the budget recently approved by the state Senate. Named the Advanced Vehicle Research Center, the project would be located off I-95 north of Roanoke Rapids and would provide automotive testing services at a facility that would include a 2.5-mile closed loop test track, laboratories, garages, and office space.

Don Carrington
View more