Business & Economy

A North Carolina business is calling on the U-S Senate to stop its partisan bickering and re-authorize the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

A two-day conference getting underway at North Carolina A&T State University will weigh how certain events affect the African-American psyche.

Jeff Tiberii: The Dialogue On Progressive Enlightenment Conference, or DOPE, will focus on higher education. The conference began three years ago as an outlet for social concerns within the African-American community. Brian Sims is an Assistant professor of Psychology at North Carolina A&T. He described the conference on the State of Things.

State officials are asking for public input as they prepare a statewide bicycle and pedestrian plan.

Jeff Tiberii: There are more than 3-thousand miles of existing bike routes in North Carolina. Officials at the Department of Transportation want to add better signage, as well as a useful website with maps of the trails. Julia Casadonte says the state last updated the plan 15 years ago. She notes the state's population has grown significantly during that time.

The last remnant of RBC Bank in the Triangle was removed earlier today. Governor Bev Perdue and others officially renamed the RBC Center the PNC Arena at a ceremony in Raleigh.

Dave DeWitt: Today, PNC officials and Governor Perdue were all smiles as the very last RBC sign came down, and a PNC Arena logo took its place. But tomorrow, the company is expected to start laying off employees in Raleigh and Rocky Mount – perhaps more than 600.

Governor Perdue says the job losses are a temporary setback.

Guilford County is suing some of the nation’s largest banks over forged mortgage documents.

Jeff Tiberii: Local officials want to put a stop to robo-signing. That’s the practice of third-party employees falsifying financial documents. It has been a national problem in the housing crisis. Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen found more than 45-hundred mortgages in Guilford County that appear to have been forged.