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Economy and election tie for top spot
Journal graphic by Casandra Sherrill
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Published: January 1, 2009
The economy played havoc with people's lives in 2008.
And so, not surprisingly, the economy was a factor in several stories chosen by the newsroom staff of the Winston-Salem Journal as the top stories of the year. Staff members were asked to choose the top five stories from a list of nearly 40 contenders. The most frequently voted responses came to form the Top 10 stories in Northwest North Carolina for 2008.
The top spot was a tie. One story was the role that North Carolina played in presidential politics during both the primary and the general election -- with the state going for Barack Obama, a Democratic swing in a presidential election for the first time in 32 years. The other story was the sale of Wachovia Corp. to Wells Fargo & Co., announced in October days after the continuing crisis in the banking world led to a failed attempt by the federal government to force a merger of Wachovia and Citigroup.
The economy is likely to continue posing problems for the region in the year ahead.
Just last week, for example, FedEx Corp. announced that it would delay the opening of its $228 million sorting hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport from June until sometime in the fall and reduce the planned number of jobs there from 750 to about 350. The question of whether the Wells Fargo takeover will cost more local jobs also could be answered in 2009.
Here are the top 10 stories of 2008:
1. (tie) The role North Carolina played in the presidential election. The sale of Wachovia Corp. to Wells Fargo & Co.
□ North Carolina was at the center of the presidential campaign all year. Many people thought that North Carolina's May 6 primary -- one of the last in the nation -- would doom the state to irrelevance. Instead, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama crisscrossed the state, fighting for every last delegate. When Obama beat Clinton by 14 points in North Carolina, he essentially sealed his nomination. The primary set the stage for North Carolina as a battleground state in the general election, too. Obama blanketed the state with a huge grassroots team and blitzed the airwaves with television ads, forcing John McCain to spend money here, too. The candidates, their running mates and spouses made final visits to North Carolina in the waning days of the campaign. When the returns came in, Obama had won here by less than half a percentage point, the first Democrat to take the presidential vote since Jimmy Carter. He did it by increasing turnout among black voters and young voters and by taking advantage of the large number of new, politically moderate residents moving into the state's suburbs. Broad disaffection with President Bush, the Republican Party and the state of the economy didn't hurt Obama, either. Obama's win helped pave the way for two other key Democratic wins, state Sen. Kay Hagan's upset of incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole in the U.S. Senate, and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's victory over Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory. Perdue will become North Carolina's first female governor.
□ The takeover of Wachovia by Wells Fargo, ratified at the final Wachovia shareholders' meeting on Dec. 23, means the end of Wachovia. Even though the 2001 merger of Wachovia and First Union Corp. had been a major change, shareholders on Dec. 23 lamented the loss of an independent Wachovia. They blamed poor decision-making on the part of Wachovia executives, notably former chairman and chief executive Ken Thompson, for his risky investments, such as a $25.2 billion deal for Golden West Financial Corp.'s toxic mortgage portfolio. The major question now is what will become of the 20,000 Wachovia jobs in Charlotte and 2,900 jobs in Winston-Salem. The company has said it expects to shed jobs as part of the merger.
3. Massive layoffs in the region.
Nearly 8,000 people in the Triad had their jobs eliminated this year, including large layoffs by Winston-Salem's Hanesbrands Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., among many others. Another 500 people in Alleghany, Ashe, Watauga and Wilkes counties lost their jobs, as companies closed plants, trimmed expenses or shifted operations overseas. In short, it was a brutal year on the employment front, and economists and employment officials expect a dismal 2009 as well.
4. A man is killed in his home and a Meals-on-Wheels volunteer is shot to death in a shocking robbery.
On April 24, an elderly man was beaten to death in his home by an intruder, who then turned a gun on two Meals-on-Wheels workers who were delivering a noontime meal. When all was done, the resident of the home on Jonestown Road, Bob Denning, 64, was dead, as was Meals-on-Wheels volunteer Anne Magness, 77. Her husband, Bill Magness, 78, survived gunshot wounds. The next day in Norfolk, Va., state police spotted the sport-utility vehicle described as having left the scene in Winston-Salem. They chased the vehicle to a mall parking lot, where after a five-hour standoff, Timothy Hartford Jr., 38, surrendered. Hartford and his girlfriend, Ashley Kristine Smith, 26, each face two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.
5. (four-way tie) The deaths of high-school athletes Matt Gfeller and Khalid Prince during games.
The death of Jesse Helms.
The rise of the price of gasoline to over $4 a gallon and its subsequent fall to current levels in the $1.50 range.
The Winston-Salem Warthogs are named as the Dash and the new downtown ballpark grows in cost.
□ High-school athletes Matt Gfeller of Reynolds and Khalid Prince of Parkland were both just 15 when they died. In August, Gfeller, a linebacker, died after a collision caused a brain injury. It was the first time a player had died as a result of a brain injury on the football field in North Carolina since 1981. Prince died in December after collapsing while running up the court during a Parkland junior-varsity basketball game. An autopsy showed that Prince had a condition that weakened his heart.
□ Sen. Jesse Helms, the conservative icon who represented North Carolina for 30 years, died on July 4 at 86. Helms, a Republican, was renowned during his five terms for railing against civil rights, government spending, abortion, homosexuality, pornography and communism. From 1994 through 2001, he wielded his greatest power as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat, said it best upon news of Helms' death: "Whether you liked his politics or not, Helms was a national force able to deliver for his constituents."
□ For the first eight months of 2008, gasoline prices soared to record levels. In the Triad, the average price topped out at an average of $4.11 a gallon on Sept. 15. High gas prices had been an issue throughout the primary-election season, and they continued to rise through the summer. Beginning in mid-September, though, prices quickly plummeted as people cut their gas consumption and the stock market began to nosedive. Gas prices this week averaged $1.55 a gallon, a level not seen in more than four years. Prices are expected to continue to remain in the current range for several months, AAA Carolinas predicts.
□ December isn't exactly baseball time of year, but Winston-Salem's minor-league team made news as it announced its new name, the Dash, as it prepared to open its new downtown stadium. And team officials had another surprise. The stadium's cost will now be $38 million, up from $22 million. The city, which gave $12 million toward the initial cost, is not contributing further, meaning that team owner Billy Prim will have to finance it himself or find other investors. One who won't be involved is former co-owner Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, who is being bought out. Work on the stadium has come close to a standstill for several weeks while Prim completes his buyout of Filipowski's stake, threatening the long-planned April opening of the stadium.
9. Continued acrimony between the two medical centers in Winston-Salem as they vie for competing community hospitals.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center wants to build a community hospital in Advance. Novant Health wants to build one in Clemmons, barely four miles away.
Throughout the year, officials from both hospitals waged a battle before the public and state regulators over whose proposal was best for the region. At times, the arguing became caustic, with Novant officials in particular accusing those at Baptist of dirty tactics. The state, however, ruled that Baptist officials hadn't done anything wrong and in late August approved, with conditions, the hospital in Advance. Then, to the surprise of many health officials and analysts, the state last month conditionally approved Novant's proposal. The question for 2009 will be whether the two organizations will work together on a one-hospital solution or continue to pursue their separate hospitals. Novant has already appealed the state's approval of Baptist's Davie hospital, and Baptist appears likely to do the same for Novant's Clemmons hospital.
10. Incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole goes down to defeat at the hands of Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan.
Hagan, who had to be all but strong-armed by her party to challenge Dole, mounted an effective advertising campaign by capitalizing on Dole's infrequent appearances in North Carolina. Though Dole struck back with negative ads of her own, it came too late to stop Hagan's momentum, which was clearly aided by Obama' s strength in the state. Dole's defeat after one term means the end of 36 years of Republican control of the Senate seat previously held by Helms.
■ Les Gura can be reached at 727-7234 or at lgura@wsjournal.com.
■ Journal reporter James Romoser contributed to this story.
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