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CNN) -- IBM, one of America's largest companies, shook the employee compensation world when it announced recently that it would contribute only once every December to its employees' 401(k) accounts. Any employee who leaves before December would not be able to collect the company's match. Workers at IBM aren't marching to the picket line like Walmart workers and longshoreman who protest pay and working conditions, but you just never know. Only about 9% of the nation's employers make matches once a year. IBM's move is paving the way for big companies to go down this road.

SALISBURY - Based on early voting, a county elections official says turnout for this year's presidential election could rival the last one four years ago. In 2008, total voter turnout was 61,948, or 68.61 percent of registered voters. "I really think turnout's going to be pretty close to what it was in 2008," said Elections Director Nancy Evans. "But if it's raining, turnout might not be good on Election Day." Polls open Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. According to Accuweather.com, the day's forecast is cloudy with a chance of rain. Evans said it's hard to tell...

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A Charlotte man is behind bars after investigators say he threatened to kill President Obama during the Democratic National Convention. Investigators told WBTV that Donte Jarmar Sims, 21, was arrested on Wednesday, charged in a felony criminal complaint accusing him of threatening the president's life. The first tweet was sent out at 10:06 a.m. on Monday when Sims tweeted, "Well Ima Assassinate president Obama this evening !... Gotta get this monkey off my chest while he's in town." "Ima hit president Obama with that Lee Harvey Oswald swagg," he tweeted just two minutes later.

SALISBURY — Hotels in Rowan County probably won’t be seeing the boom in business they expected for the approaching Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. James Meacham, executive director of the Rowan-Salisbury Tourism Development Authority, said four Salisbury hotels set aside a total of about 400 rooms for convention attendees. Of those, only seven or eight were booked through the Democratic National Convention Committee. Thursday morning, those few reservations were canceled, after unreserved rooms were released back to the hotels last week. “Now, no hotels in Salisbury have reservations for the convention,” said Krista Osterweil, general manager of the Hampton Inn....

Americans, according to a Winston Churchill quote of uncertain provenance, always do the right thing after they've exhausted all other possibilities. More verifiably, Sir Winston, upon being asked if he had any criticism of the United States, replied tersely: "Toilet paper too thin, newspapers too fat." But that was then. Today, America is a land of two-ply toilet paper and one-ply newspapers. Being made of sterner stuff than Churchill's posterior, the eco-left want to ban two-ply bathroom tissue on environmental grounds, which would devastate the economy of Canada, whence comes most American bathroom tissue, at least until the Canadians, being...

By Karissa Minn kminn@salisburypost.com SALISBURY - Rowan County has filed a lawsuit against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying it is entitled to unpaid taxes from the mortgage companies. The Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) are government-backed public corporations that used to be federal agencies. According to the lawsuit, filed Friday in the Middle District of North Carolina, they have financed “many thousands of real estate transactions” throughout the state. Rowan County is seeking to join class action litigation with several other counties. In North Carolina, state law imposes an...

SALISBURY — State Democratic party leaders are denouncing Carrol Crawford, candidate for Rowan County commissioner, for views he advocated as a Ku Klux Klan leader. Crawford resigned in 1987 after two years as North Carolina grand dragon of the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He estimated at the time that he had led more than 200 street walks in communities all over the Carolinas. Earlier that year, Crawford was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $500 for burning a cross at a Charlotte Klan rally. North Carolina Democratic Party officials also are condemning the comments of...

Numerous sources say Gov. Bev Perdue will not seek re-election in 2012. Perdue will turn 65 this month. Her likely opponent in the next campaign will be Pat McCrory, former Charlotte mayor and a Catawba College graduate. Sources at the Associated Press are working on a story at this time. The Raleigh News & Observer is reporting Perdue is expected to make an announcement this afternoon. The News & Observer is also reporting that Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton has about $600,000 in the bank, according to campaign finance reports. Others likely to make a run include current Charlotte Mayor Anthony...

SALISBURY — Three Charlotte men were arrested Wednesday after a failed attempt to return items at a Salisbury Walmart led to an armed robbery. According to Salisbury Police, Diaundrea Hallman, Dontavius Pendergrass and Jihad Pittman were arrested in the parking lot after they pulled a stun gun on a Walmart loss prevention officer. The men tried to return a king-size mattress pad at the 323 Arlington St. store about 6 p.m., but were turned away because they did not have a receipt, the report said. Police said the men began causing a disturbance in the store and began walking toward...

New York (CNN) -- A cleaning planned for the Manhattan park where "Occupy Wall Street" protesters have camped out for weeks has been postponed, a move that averts a showdown between demonstrators and police. The New York mayor's office said Brookfield Properties, the owners of Zuccotti Park, told the city late Thursday the scheduled cleaning is off for now and "for the time being" they are "withdrawing their request" made earlier in the week for police assistance during the cleaning operation. "Our position has been consistent throughout: the City's role is to protect public health and safety, to enforce the...

A passing motorist on Organ Church Road called 911 Monday morning after seeing what appeared to be a bloody body pinned under a lawn mower. But authorities quickly learned that the body was actually a graphic Halloween decoration placed near the road by a neighbor. “It wasn’t too long after we dispatched a call that we found out it was a Halloween decoration,” said 911 center shift supervisor Autumn Davis. The attention-grabbing gag, set up in the yard at 3475 Organ Church Road near Rockwell, wasn’t surrounded by any other Halloween decorations on Monday. The set-up depicts a body with...

A solar panel factory in eastern China has been shut down after protests by local residents over pollution fears. Some 500 villagers staged a three-day protest following the death of large numbers of fish in a local river. Some demonstrators broke into the plant in Zhejiang province, destroying offices and overturning company cars before being dispersed by riot police. Tests on water samples showed high levels of fluoride, which can be toxic in high doses, officials said. The BBC's Juliana Liu in Shanghai says the Chinese villagers see the plant's closure as a victory. They accuse Jinko Solar, a Chinese...

The GOP’s conduct resembles a child whose parents refuse to grant his/her demands. The rejection of discipline is most onerous because of damage committed by the selfish desire to regulate and control. Self-centered children even refuse to accept the consequences of their actions and strike back regardless of the effects of their actions. When Bush II initiated his Iraqi War for the benefit of the petroleum industry, he offered little consideration on how we would pay for the war. He provided a tax haven for his associates, which Speaker Boehner compelled the administration to extend. It is this spoiled child...

SALISBURY — The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is investigating after a rock star with a criminal history joined officers from the Spencer Police Department, Salisbury Police Department and Rowan County Sheriff’s Office at a local shooting range earlier this month. Sheriff Kevin Auten said he was first notified by Spencer Police Chief Michael James on July 21 of the incident, which involved former Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and other band members at the Rowan County Peace Officer’s Lodge shooting range. “I just wanted someone outside of our agency to look at it,” Auten said. “Obviously I...

After watching President Obama's television interview on CBS' 60 Minutes -- by far his most presidentially impressive event to date -- I began thinking about how differently we perceived our presidents back in the days when radio ruled the waves. Specifically, I thought about two radio events -- and what they allowed us to "see" a bit more clearly -- about our presidents and ourselves. The first event was the most fascinating fact about America's first televised presidential campaign debate, the 1960 meeting of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon: People who saw it on television told pollsters Kennedy won...

CONCORD — You can only speculate about the last moments of a Vietnam soldier killed in action. Imagine the choking clouds of dust followed by a heavy pattering of rain, those adrenaline-filled heartbeats of a soldier, ready to do what his country asked him to. Imagine that soldier, fingering a lucky Zippo lighter in his pocket, another touching a cross nestled around his neck, all of them checking their weapons. They take fire, three don’t make it out. Things similar to these may have happened during the last moments of Sgt. First Class Donald “Donnie” Monroe Shue. Shue, an Army...

In an HBO special airing Wednesday night, four former Auburn football players will say they received cash from boosters, according to the Sports by Brooks website. One of them, Stanley McClover, will say that during his recruiting process he got $500 in a handshake from LSU, other money handshakes from Auburn and Michigan State, and sexual favors at Ohio State. The website says it reviewed an advanced copy of the show, "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel."

Smokers across Rowan County are fired up about the possibility of the cost of a pack of cigarettes increasing by $1, and some even say they’ll start growing their own tobacco if North Carolina House Bill 341 is passed. “I’m going to do it regardless of what they do, even if I have to buy tobacco seeds and grow it myself,” Shane Allman said of the proposed increase. “I’ll cut it up as I need it, and roll it up as I need it. That way I can throw my middle finger up at the government.” Allman, a 33-year-old employee...

Duke Energy Corp., whose CEO is leading the fundraising for the Democratic National Convention, is guaranteeing a $10 million line of credit for the event. The credit line from Fifth Third Bank is apparently the first time such an arrangement has been used by any Democratic convention organizers. A Duke spokesman said stockholders, not rate-payers, would be on the line if the convention's host committee defaults. But the head of the committee said it may never have to draw on the money. "It is just security in the event of a cash shortfall," Will Miller, acting executive director of the...

Joseph McCarthy, the U.S. senator of the early 1950s, is still remembered for two things: Drinking too much and his passionate pursuit of communists that ended up resembling a witch-hunt. Could alcohol and paranoia have led him to devote his career to searching for communists living among us? Thousands suffered from his relentless pursuits. McCarthy, finally exposed, died in disgrace. But the question remained: How could one man, even a U.S. senator, destroy the reputations and livelihoods of so many people? Intrigued by this story, author and investigator M. Stanton Evans wondered if perhaps the truth had become clouded by...