Brian Gordon
@skyoutbriout.bsky.social
Covering business, labor and tech — The News & Observer
The Durham energy firm accused of operating “a brazen fraud scheme" has filed for bankruptcy. Good reporting by @skyoutbriout.bsky.social.
Facing a $1.1 billion fraud penalty, Durham energy firm files for bankruptcy
American Efficient valued its current assets at between $1 million and $10 million, a fraction of what regulators demand from the company.
newsobserver.com
Websites presenting as local news outlets are using AI to create fake North Carolina journalists: www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
The bylines look real. But these prolific NC reporters aren’t.
“Jordan Parker.” “Adrianne Sinclair.” “Carlos Hernandez.” Appearing as news outlets, websites create fake AI journalists in North Carolina.
newsobserver.com
For anyone curious to learn more about the broader FERC vs. American Efficient case: amp-newsobserver-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.news...
What the FERC is going on with Durham’s American Efficient record fraud charge?
Making sense of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission historic case against a North Carolina energy efficiency aggregator.
amp-newsobserver-com.cdn.ampproject.org
Exclusive: As a candidate in 2024, Sen. Sophia Chitlik of Durham joined her husband to lobby at least three congressional offices in the interests of his company American Efficient, which federal regulators this year accused of operating a “brazen fraud.” www.newsobserver.com/news/politic...
As candidate, NC senator lobbied for husband’s energy company amid federal probe
Exclusive: Sophia Chitlik of Durham represented the interests of the embattled firm in at least three congressional office meetings.
newsobserver.com
Expect major changes to take years — if not decades — but starting July 16, RTP property owners can apply to build mixed-used communities and entire residential neighborhoods for the first time in the park's 67-year history. www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
In a first, RTP landowners can soon apply to build residential and mixed-use sites
Recent approval of a 50-year plan may bring massive changes to North Carolina’s most famous business park.
newsobserver.com
I love talking to WUNC's The Broadside, and I love talking about MrBeast. Check out the latest episode, which explores the Eastern North Carolina city that the world's biggest YouTuber calls home: www.wunc.org/podcast/the-...
MrBeastville
The world's most popular YouTuber and his billion-dollar business are based in a surprising place: Greenville, North Carolina.
wunc.org
How a bill becomes a completely different law at the NC General Assembly: www.newsobserver.com/news/politic...
Why NC’s bipartisan ‘down-zoning’ reform bill is now about ... wake surfing
The North Carolina House has gutted zoning legislation local governments from Durham to rural towns widely supported. What comes next?
newsobserver.com
NC House limits data centers, requires nuclear power before closing coal plants. The data center bill also prevents Duke Energy from retiring a natural gas or coal plant until it gets a permit to build a bigger nuclear site. (Via @skyoutbriout.bsky.social) www.newsobserver.com/news/busines... #ncpol
NC House limits data centers, requires nuclear power before closing coal plants
Will the Ratepayer Protection Act protect North Carolina ratepayers? Republicans and Democrats were at odds Wednesday, with the GOP majority prevailing.
newsobserver.com
Traveled to Greenville, NC last weekend for a live taping of Beast Games Season 3. MrBeast owns Greenville — both figuratively and literally. The night highlighted Jimmy Donaldson's stage presence and the allure of random money giveaways. I left hungry: www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
Up late filming with MrBeast in his North Carolina hometown
We went to a taping of MrBeast’s “Beast Games” show at Greenville’s ECU campus. Here’s what we can (and can’t) show you.
newsobserver.com
Some corporate origin stories are misdirections. A startup struggles for years before its big breakthrough. That was not SAS Institute. The Triangle software company spun out of NC State with a unique financial bedrock that has defined its past 50 years: www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
SAS left NC State 50 years ago with a deal that today would be hard to believe
How the original SAS Institute-university agreement, which may have never been written down, set the Cary software company’s unique course.
newsobserver.com
Toured North Carolina’s largest tobacco campus and left thinking about a rotting foot and how the state balances the harms its economically valuable “golden leaf” has caused: amp.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
Inside an NC tobacco factory, where everything looks normal but the rotten foot
A tour of Reynolds American’s Tobaccoville campus. Plus, SAS history, Durham hiring trends and data center politics, in this week’s Open Source newsletter.
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A developer is challenging Chatham County's recent data center moratorium, arguing... 1. The moratorium is unlawful. 2. Even if it is legal, their 750 MW(!) data center proposal southwest of Raleigh should be exempt from the 1-year permitting pause: www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
NC developer sues Chatham County over legality of new data center moratorium
The lawsuit rejects Chatham’s 12-month permitting pause, a move municipalities statewide have embraced to slow down data center growth.
newsobserver.com
Arrive for the pun headline, stay for the detailed breakdown of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s historic fraud charges against Durham-based American Efficient. Did AE profit from a creature approach or, as one law professor put it, “pure chicanery”? www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
What the FERC is going on with Durham’s American Efficient record fraud charge?
Making sense of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission historic case against a North Carolina energy efficiency aggregator.
newsobserver.com
Rather than say it will eventually go public, Cary's SAS Institute now says it wants to be IPO-ready to give its 83-year-old owner succession options. So it felt time to explore what those other options are: www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
SAS walks back pledge to go public, creates space for Goodnight succession options
Private equity? Put it in a trust? How billionaire Jim Goodnight handles the future of his giant software company will matter to its Triangle employees.
newsobserver.com
A downtown Durham company headed by the husband of a state senator has been charged with “brazen” fraud by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. American Efficient refutes the government’s findings: amp.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
Durham energy company accused of ‘brazen’ fraud, fined $722 million by feds
A federal commission accused American Efficient of operating an illegal scheme. The company, led by the husband of a state senator, is pushing back.
amp.newsobserver.com
How some of the top H-1B worker employers in North Carolina have shifted their approach to this foreign worker program after Trump administration set $100,000 fee on visa applicants not already living in US:
North Carolina will have hyperscale data centers from five of the world’s 10 most valuable companies, if confirmed projects from Amazon and Microsoft go forward. Last week, Gov Stein questioned whether NC should continue offering data center operators sales tax exemptions:
North Carolina has jumped ahead of Georgia for the nation’s 2nd most Dollar Generals. The discount chain has expanded considerably statewide since the Great Recession, with 1,150 locations today:
I promise to eat my hat (faded navy blue Durham Bulls cap) if VinFast makes cars in North Carolina by 2028: www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
Call me crazy, but I have doubts about VinFast’s latest NC factory timeline
The Vietnamese EV maker reaffirmed it will produce vehicles in Chatham County. But the company’s numbers and track record don’t add up.
newsobserver.com
A Cary video game company cofounded by best-selling novelist Tom Clancy will stop making games as its parent company seeks to reverse flouncing finances. More than 100 Red Storm Entertainment employees are expected to be laid off: www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
Cary video game studio to stop developing games, lay off more than 100 in Triangle
Founded in 1996, Red Storm Entertainment is cutting jobs as its parent company works to turn around floundering finances.
newsobserver.com
“This is where I wanted to serve, right here at home. But these are not ordinary times.” - former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper accepting the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate at a party event in Raleigh.
Just in: former NC Gov. Roy Cooper DID NOT wear a necktie tonight in Raleigh when accepting the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. www.newsobserver.com/news/local/a...
When will Roy Cooper next wear a tie? No neckwear is no accident.
North Carolina’s top Senate candidates kicked off their campaigns this week without neck ties. Plus, Duke stays quiet on Trump funding threat and inside Garner’s massive Amazon warehouse.
newsobserver.com
Just in: Waymo confirms it will start driving vehicles (with human drivers) around Uptown Charlotte to prepare for future autonomous service. "Our fleet and driving area will expand gradually over time," a Waymo spokesperson said. www.charlotteobserver.com/news/busines...
A dozen Waymo driverless cars are in uptown Charlotte. What could happen next
The driverless electric robotaxis were seen near the Panthers practice fields. The company is expanding US autonomous ride-hailing services.
charlotteobserver.com
Breaking, though not shocking: Microsoft has confirmed it plans to build a new data center in North Carolina's Person County, on 1,350 acres the company purchased for around $27 million in October 2024. www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
Microsoft confirms plans for 1,350-acre megasite north of Triangle. What to know.
The company confirmed what many expected when it purchased the Person County land more than a year ago. Microsoft says permitting process could begin in 2026.
newsobserver.com
With a legal challenge this month, the operator of Family Fare halted Durham’s rezoning effort: www.newsobserver.com/herald-sun/d...
Legal threat from large NC convenience store operator pauses Durham rezoning plan
The challenge from a prominent business leader has halted Durham’s effort to update its development code, officials say.
newsobserver.com
The final provision tucked into a 131-page disaster relief bill has North Carolina local governments feeling stuck on how to zone their communities. Get to know down-zoning and why it matters to statewide data center debates: amp-newsobserver-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.news...
How a change buried in NC Helene relief bill makes it harder to block data centers
One provision at the very end of a 131-page bill has upended zoning for local leaders dealing with many kinds of property uses across NC.
amp-newsobserver-com.cdn.ampproject.org
Four months removed from bankruptcy, the North Carolina chipmaker has new plans and a massive dormant factory.
What Wolfspeed needs to wake up its very quiet Chatham County factory
Four months removed from bankruptcy, the North Carolina chipmaker has new plans and a massive dormant factory.
bit.ly
Since 2021, more than 16,000 NY residents have moved to the Triangle's three main counties, adding to the local presence of people from the land of lake effect snow, Garbage Plates, wings, and the Buffalo Bills: amp-newsobserver-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.news...
Panthers, smanthers: The Triangle is home for Western NY food and football
Garbage Plates in the Tar Heel State. A group of non-native NC residents from the north have made their new state look (and taste) familiar.
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New records: Nearly all of MrBeast's upcoming Beast Games Season 2 shot in Eastern NC, where MrBeast/Jimmy Donaldson grew up and remains based. To award a Beast production crew $15 million in incentives, NC first had to update its grant rules: amp-newsobserver-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.news...
MrBeast filmed most of new Beast Games in NC after state updated incentive rules
New public records explain not only when and where Beast Games Season 2 was shot, but how North Carolina adjusted its guidelines to bring it to MrBeast’s home state.
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News scoop in downtown Durham: Meta did not renew its office lease this summer at American Tobacco Campus. The tech company previously committed to hire 100 engineers at this site. www.newsobserver.com/news/busines...
Meta ends lease of Durham office where it once planned to employ 100 engineers
One of the world’s 10 most valuable companies has exited an office at American Tobacco Campus.
newsobserver.com