Free Republic

New state guidelines threaten to yank hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits from some of the city's biggest new developments, including the New York Times tower planned for Eighth Avenue in Midtown. Under the state's 2003 brownfield law, which gives tax breaks for cleaning and building on contaminated land, the Times is in line for up to $170 million in breaks.

Convention Center Comes Tumbling Down In the end, the demise of the old Washington Convention Center resembled more of a deflation than an implosion -- the squat structure, at its tallest roughly the equivalent of a four-story building, didn't have far to fall. It died about 7:30 a.m. yesterday in a roughly 20-second ballet of crackling explosives, toppling walls and a large cloud of dust that marked the spot where on Dec. 10, 1982, city officials had hosted a grand opening reception. This time, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) presided over a gathering at the newer, flashier convention center a...

CHAPEL HILL -- Students from poor families will be able to attend UNC-Chapel Hill for free and incur no debt under a major financial aid initiative announced Wednesday. The program, dubbed the "Carolina Covenant," requires that the low-income students work 10 to 12 hours a week in campus jobs during their four-year college careers. The university will cover total college costs through a combination of federal and state money, university and private grants, and scholarships. No loans would be necessary. "College ought to be affordable, ought to be possible, for everyone who can make the grade, regardless of family income,"...

A buyout of federal tobacco quotas would infuse at least $4 billion into North Carolina's rural economy, sending money to rural landowners. But that money has to come from somewhere. Officials at North Carolina's largest tobacco company say that by backing legislation to charge cigarette-makers an 'assessment' to pay for the quota buyout, Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is breaking with the spirit, if not the letter, of her campaign pledge not to support tax increases. 'This appears to be a classic bait and switch,' said Tommy Payne, the senior vice president for external relations at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co....