CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — The Board of Directors of Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) today elected Tom Pashley to the Board of the Company.
Mr. Pashley, with long standing community ties in Piedmont’s growing eastern North Carolina service area, is President of Pinehurst Resort and Country Club, a position he has held since October 2014. Mr. Pashley, who has been at Pinehurst since 1996, previously served as its Executive Vice President, responsible for sales, marketing, and communications.
Mr. Pashley began his career in 1991 as a CPA in the audit group of the Atlanta office of Deloitte Touche. Mr. Pashley received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with an accounting major from the University of Georgia and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Mr. Pashley is the past chairman of the Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Convention and Visitors Bureau and also served as a member of the North Carolina Travel and Tourism Board. Mr. Pashley is a current member of the O’Neal School Board of Trustees.
About Piedmont Natural Gas
Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy services company primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to more than one million residential, commercial, industrial and power generation utility customers in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including customers served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, and regulated interstate natural gas transportation and storage, and regulated intrastate natural gas transportation businesses. More information about Piedmont Natural Gas is available on the Internet at http://www.piedmontng.com/.
The Thunder Road Wine Trail, named as a nod to the region’s whiskey bootlegging roots, debuted Tuesday, connecting six wineries from Knoxville to Butler.
Rick Riddle, executive director of the tourism push, said the marketing campaign is intended to help grow both the involved wineries and the state’s wine industry as a whole.
“If you look at Napa Valley or you look at the Finger Lakes region in New York, wine trails have been instrumental in the growth of their wine industries,” he said. “If we do well, and start attracting people to the wineries already established, it might help those people who are considering opening but worried about the big investment it takes to make that decision.”
Next month, kickoff events will be held at each of the wineries on the Thunder Road Wine Trail, with festivities at Watauga Lake Winery, 6952 Big Dry Run Road, Butler, on Oct. 17. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on that Saturday, the kickoff celebration will include a ribbon cutting by state Rep. Timothy Hill, a vintage car show and an appearance by local personality Tom “Tiny” Roberson, owner of the East Tennessee Distillery in Piney Flats.
Wine connoisseurs who visit multiple wineries and have their free wine trail passports stamped could also win prizes. For collecting five winery stamps, visitors receive free wine glasses. Those who visit all six of the trail’s stops will be entered into a drawing for a two-night stay at a bed and breakfast.
Riddle said visitors will also learn about the types of wines that can be produced using grapes best suited to grow in Tennessee’s humid subtropical climate.
“It’s not easy to grow a lot of the wine grapes here, but we can grow some of the French-American hybrids, and our winemakers can make some great wines with them,” he said. “The goal is getting folks out there an tasting those wines, so that instead of just being familiar with the Rieslings or Merlots, they know about the Chancellor, Chambourcin and Seyval varietals that grow well here.”
Riddle admitted Tennessee’s wine industry sprouted from the ground late. The first winery wasn’t officially founded until 1980, but now there are more than 60, with nearly 700 acres of vineyard in commercial production.
“The industry here has tremendous potential for growth, and I think wine trails are critical to that growth,” he said, noting that the Rocky Top Wine Trail, which links five wineries in Sevier County, brings in 70,000 visitors to the individual wineries each year.
The business owners on the Thunder Road Trail are fairly new to the industry, all but one having opened in the past three years, but Riddle hopes the success of the trail coaxes new wineries to open, adding to the economies of the communities in which they operate.
Watauga Lake Winery, which opened to the public in November 2012, repurposed the historic Johnson County Big Dry Run Schoolhouse into its commercial and production front.
Owners Wayne and Linda Gay put their first grapevines in the ground in 2005, the early start of what would become Villa Nove Vineyards, but didn’t begin production for another seven years.
In 2015, the winery’s Fox Hollow and Duncan Hollow wines won double gold and gold, respectively, at the Asheville Wine Food Festival Wine Competition.
Last year, Watauga Lake Winery was included with others in the mountainous regions of North Carolina and Virginia hoping to receive an American Viticultural Area designation from the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. The designation would assign a unique characteristic to wines made from grapes grown higher than 2,000 feet in elevation.
So far, the wineries’ petition is still pending with the federal agency.
Follow Nathan Baker on Twitter @JCPressBaker. Like him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jcpressbaker.
U.S. Senator Thom Tillis speaks at the Global Leadership Coalition Forum.
Thom Tillis likes the free-for-all race among Republicans in the presidential race. Is he endorsing Donald Trump? No, but he’s not endorsing anyone on the GOP side. At least not yet.
And he likes the brawling style Trump and others in the race have brought to the contest to become the party’s nominee in 2016. On the Democratic side, he’s surprised by what he called former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s defensive posture with reporters over her email controversy.
He dislikes a move by some of his former colleagues in the state legislature to overhaul how much tax money goes to rural counties. And, Tillis believes, the proposal will likely die in the General Assembly by the time they adjourn next month. Asked about the decision by the state not to re-try Randall Kerrick, the policeman charged with excessive force in the shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed black man, Tillis told me the legal process has been allowed to play out. In addition, Charlotte residents responded with appropriate, peaceful protests, avoiding the violent reactions in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., the senator noted.
In eight months on the job as a U.S. senator, he’s become a globetrotter, too. Israel, Indonesia, Australia and Kuwait are among the countries Tillis has toured as part of trips arranged to help Congress better understand areas of international importance.
On Monday, Tillis spent the day in Charlotte, part of a statewide tour during the late-summer recess on capitol hill. The Republican senator — who served two terms as N.C. House speaker as a state lawmaker from Mecklenburg County — met with local and regional tourism executives at the Mint Museum uptown and, later in the day, joined political ally Gov. Pat McCrory as part of a panel on national security and economic growth in Charlotte. (McCrory’s run for a second term next year is likely to be a tougher, closer race than in 2012, Tillis believes, a sentiment supported by presumed Democratic nominee Roy Cooper’s strong fund-raising.)
Beyond politics, Tillis shared a few tidbits. To start, he professed more than a passing knowledge of hair-metal rockers Motley Crue after Charlotte visitors authority CEO Tom Murray mentioned the band’s farewell tour concert at Time Warner Cable Arena over the weekend as an example of the tours and events that regularly come through town as a result of hotel and restaurant taxes paying for sports, entertainment and arts venues. Murray wondered aloud whether Tillis knew who Motley Crue was, promting the senator to blurt, “Oh, yeah, I’ve actually got a Motley Crue channel on Pandora.”
Later, as Lynn Minges, CEO of the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association, discussed industry trends, Tillis proclaimed his love of cooking — and cooking shows.
Brandishing a new Fitbit, North Carolina’s junior senator said he still escapes from politics now and then. For his 55th birthday on Sunday, he celebrated by mountain biking. Below are excerpts from Tillis’ appearances and an interview with CBJ this week.
On the sales-tax proposal under consideration in the state legislature: I think it’s lousy and I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere. It doesn’t make sense because it starts creating a divide between urban and rural areas. My comment when they were looking at it (was), “Well, let’s go back and re-think all of the distribution.” If you do this sort of policy, I think you’ll start creating some gaps and some uncertainty. I don’t think it makes sense. And I think there’s a growing sense that maybe they need to put that back in the Crock-Pot and let it cook a little more.
On the business privilege license tax ended by the General Assembly effective July 1: I really was hoping, advocating for, if we wanted to move off of that (tax) base, to provide a transition period. Instead of having the shock that it had for certain municipalities that used a lot as a source of revenue. I guess in Charlotte, it was about $19 million. It was a significant hit for other communities as well.
Any time you do tax reform, you really need to have a transition period. I don’t think in that particular case we put our best foot forward. The overall tax reform was very positive. I think it’s had some effect on some of the economic trends.
On labor issues: As the economy turns, one of the most significant impediments to economic growth is going to be labor availability. And North Carolina is in a unique position to point to a shortage of American workers for certain jobs, which is why we’ve got to work on illegal immigration.
We’re the only state in the nation that didn’t extend long-term unemployment benefits. We were at about 10.2% (unemployment) over five quarters; we went down to about 6.4%. You’ve got your direct jobs, but you’ve also got the indirect jobs: construction, a number of other things. If we don’t do a better job of getting illegal worker immigration policies in place, it’s going to be a significant impediment to a number of industries.
On local and state control over raising the minimum wage: If states want to make a decision about that, I’ll leave it to the states. I really don’t think that the federal government should come in (and decide for them). Let’s take a look at what what Washington (state) is doing, what L.A.’s doing (with a recently passed $15-an-hour minimum wage) and see if it works. … If we artifically inflate the cost of labor at a time when we’re becoming increasingly competitive in terms of a global economy, then I think it could create some real deal-killers. … If North Carolina wants to do it, y’all go down to Raleigh and talk them into it. You know, or if other cities and counties want to do it. I think it’s great that some companies are stepping up and doing it. That’s how it works. If the demand — if a Walmart can make a new wage policy that gives them a competitive advantage, the competition is going to have to respond to it — that is free-market competition versus market manipulation.
On the surprising rise of Trump in Republican polls and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT):(You mean Sanders), the self-avowed Socialist Democrat? I think there’s a general frustration with where we as a country. We’re not recovering economically. You take a look at the stock market last week — it looked like the EKG of a heart-attack patient. There’s a lot of frustration. We can’t quite get businesses to invest. I think a lot of that’s the regulatory burdens they have to deal with. It’s great debate.
On my side, as a Republican, I love the process right now. People are beginning to know the personalities of the candidates. I think in the October-November time frame, they’ll start looking at policy positions and judging people on the basis of who’s really able to put that personality together with strong policy positions and priorities. We’ll be having a very different discussion about the candidates in October-November. I think competition’s good. I’m glad they’re all in there. It’s been fun to watch.
You know, we have four Senate members that are running (on the Republican side: Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio). They’re all great guys. I know them well. We sit around the cloak room and talk. I call them all, “Mr. President.”
Well over 100 people attended the annual “State of the Town” at Blowing Rock Art History Museum on Monday. Photos by Jesse Wood
By Jesse Wood
More than 100 people packed the conference room in the Blowing Rock Art History Room on Monday evening to hear the annual “State of the Town” update, and in more ways than one, things are looking a little sunnier in Blowing Rock – and not just because Sunny Rock recently opened.
Mayor J.B. Lawrence introduced Town Manager Scott Fogleman on Monday.
Blowing Rock Tourism Development Authority Executive Director Tracy Brown said that the town has seen steady growth in occupancy tax revenue in the last five years. Among the brightest nuggets of info on the evening was that tax revenue is now above pre-recession levels.
“We are tickled to death about that. We expect that trend to continue,” Brown said.
Brown said that the 2014-15 fiscal year saw an increase in revenue by 4.7 percent and that the June month, in particular, was up 12 percent year over year. That last stat, Brown added, was actually “without the Shriners coming to town.”
Town Manager Scott Fogleman talked about how the town continues to implement its comprehensive plan, which features a top ten priorities list, and was adopted last year. Those include burying utilities, which is happening with the U.S. 321 widening project; supporting the Middle Fork Greenway project, which is ongoing; and installing a multi-use path from downtown to Bass Lake, for which a grant application for this $1.2-million project has been submitted.
Fogleman gave a recap on the $13-million investment bonds that Blowing Rock voters approved during the last election to improve the town’s infrastructure. He noted that the first project to be used with these funds – a culvert replacement on Cornish Road – is already underway.
The current year’s budget features $500,000 for road failure repairs, $502,000 for ditch line repairs, $101,000 for culvert replacements, and $839,000 for repaving, Fogleman said.
“The goal is to repave every road in Blowing Rock in the next 10 years,” Fogleman said.
Sunset Drive gateway entrance rendering. Click to enlarge
Fogleman also spoke to the gateway project, which is designed to entice folks to not bypass the town for other towns – but to turn off of U.S. 321 on to Sunset Drive or Main Street via the southern or northern entrances. See attached conceptual renderings of these gateway entrances.
Fogleman also gave citizens an update on the fate of the post office in downtown Blowing Rock. He said that the landowner of the post office in downtown Blowing Rock is working with the U.S. Postal Service to ensure that postal services remain downtown.
Charles Hardin, the executive director of the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce, said that the chamber’s five-year plan parallels the town’s newly-adopted comprehensive plan. Some of its goals include keeping downtown properties free of vacancies, supporting the Middle Fork Greenway project, the Appalachian Regional Healthcare System’s Chestnut Ridge post acute care facility off of U.S. 321 and the gateway project – the latter so motorists don’t zoom on by and end up at the “Dan’l Boone Inn,” Hardin said.
But perhaps the main event of the evening was the presentation from Doug Eller, a resident engineer with N.C. Department of Transportation, on the state of the U.S. 321 widening project through town.
This last issue isn’t as sunny as some of the other topics – at least not from many of the residents’ point of view. A business owner or two talked about how the road construction has had negative impacts on business.
Citizens expressed frustration with the project not having a crosswalk light for the future greenway extension on U.S. 321. Since it’s not apart of the project, no utilities for a future light were buried underground during this widening project.
Citizens expressed frustration with height difference between the left side and right side of the road, which are in two separate phases of the project, and the steep hill that motorists must face if they want to get to downtown as the turning lane onto Main Street was moved by 500 feet.
Eller, who answered fielded questions and took notes in response to concerns, said that the more than 3 miles of storm drain system, 3.5 miles of water and sewer lines and 26,000 tons of asphalt have been installed – among other work. Eller mentioned that the most noticeable progress has been the recent traffic shift.
“By doing that it opened up a tremendous amount of work that can now take place on the left side of the road … before winter sets in,” Eller said.
Community members present were quick to ask questions and criticize the project after Eller’s brief update. This frustration, of course, is nothing new.
Originally, the state announced that the entire project had a completion date of October 2015, and the portion of the project through Blowing Rock had a completion date of April 2014.
These were the deadlines before Taylor Murphy, which was initially awarded the contract in December 2011, ran into “financial difficulties” and its bonding agent assumed control over the project in February of 2013. Once Maymead Inc. was hired to take over as the general contractor, a new completion date was set for April 2015 and June of 2016.
In April, Maymead Inc. requested an extension and was granted until July 7, 2015 to complete the portion through Blowing Rock. In June of this year, NCDOT officials said that another extension is expected for the project, one that will allow for the project to be completed in the summer of 2016 for the portion through Blowing Rock and the summer of 2017 for the entire project.
On Monday evening, one citizen asked, “When do you truly expect to be done?” – which garnered chuckles from the audience and a smile from Eller.
He noted that that NCDOT Chief Engineer Mike Holder said during a community meeting in late June that every effort would be made to finish 95 percent of the project (the final line of asphalt striping and such) that goes through town by next July 4.
After reiterating what Holder said, Eller mentioned that winter will likely hit in 2016 just as crews enter the last step of completing the road.
“We don’t want the contractor trying to pave this road in the winter cause the asphalt is not going to last,” Eller said.
Rob Hudspeth, vice president of system advancement with Appalachian Regional Healthcare System, gave an update on the Chestnut Ridge facility, which is about 55 percent complete.
Hudspeth asked for more support since ARHS’ capital campaign for the facility currently falls about $2.3 million short. So far about $9.2 million of the $11.5 million goal has been met.
Local online travel company sales jumped more than $1 million after Airbnb officially went on the Buncombe County tax books in June.
One-month sales went from $344,177 in May to $1.4 million in June, according to the county tax department. But the spike in local online travel company commerce likely wasn’t new money.
Instead the jump from May to June came after the international short-term rental website Airbnb officially began reporting sales numbers to the county tax department. Prior to June, local Airbnb sales had been largely under the table.
The sales reporting was part of a pledge by the San Francisco-based company to start paying the local lodging tax. It is the first glimpse into the overall economic impact of the lucrative and controversial short-term rental business.
The jump in sales can’t be officially linked to Airbnb because of a state law protecting business privacy. Instead, the county tax department showed the increase in the “online travel company” category. There are a total of seven businesses or other entities in that category, tax department staff said.
Stephanie Brown, executive director of the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the increase offers the best view yet of Airbnb’s impact.
“If you’re trying to get some sense of the commerce, that number is the one,” Brown said of the more than $1 million increase.
Because overall hotel and travel business only went up 8 percent from May to June the change in that category wouldn’t have come from a seasonal boost in tourism, she said. This is the first year the county tax department tracked online travel company sales as a category.
By state law, hotels and others responsible for paying the lodging tax pay an additional 4 percent on top of sales tax. Prior to June, any Airbnb-related lodging tax payments would have come from individual property owners. Those property owners use the website to do short-term rentals for tourists.
Airbnb is only one way to do short-term rentals, but it is probably the most popular method. Short-term rentals are also brokered through other websites such as Vacation Rentals by Owner and Craigslist and by word of mouth.
Renting out property for lodging for less than 30 days is currently illegal in most of Asheville except in cases of “home stays” where a long-term resident is present and only part of a home is rented out. Short-term rentals are facing new restrictions in other local municipalities.
The City Council voted Aug. 25 to increase fines for illegal short-term rentals to $500 a day. A majority of council members said the practice threatened to “hollow out” neighborhoods with out-of-town land owners turning homes into de facto hotels. Supporters of short-term rentals say it is one way for locals to survive in an area with low-paying jobs but a thriving tourism industry.
CITIZEN TIMES
Asheville short-term rentals, Airbnbs now face $500 fines
CITIZEN TIMES
Boyle column: Short-term rentals a long-term detriment
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FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Sept. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — In its 17th year of battling childhood cancer, Hyundai Motor America and its non-profit organization, Hyundai Hope On Wheels® today announced that it will award $10.5 million in research grants to hospitals across the U.S. during September, National Childhood Cancer Awareness month. Hope On Wheels’ Every Handprint Tells a Story September campaign theme honors the brave children and families throughout America fighting against this terrible disease. Since 1998, Hyundai Hope On Wheels has awarded over $100 million in lifetime funding to childhood cancer research.
“There’s no higher calling than to make sure our children have the best future possible and it’s both an honor and privilege to support such an important cause,” said Dave Zuchowski, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor America. “While we are making positive strides in many areas of pediatric cancer, there’s still work to do. And it also doesn’t change the fact that every 36 minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer. Reaching the milestone of $100 million in giving is something we are proud of at Hyundai but the fight continues and we are determined in our mission to one day find a cure. To all the kids, families and cancer researchers on the front lines of childhood cancer – know that you are not alone and we remain committed over the long-term to this important cause. “
2015 National Campaign: Every Handprint Tells a Story and PSA Hyundai Hope on Wheels 2015 campaign Every Handprint Tells a Story is articulated through its refreshed web portal HopeOnWheels.org and new Childhood Cancer Awareness Month microsite HopeOnWheels.org/September. The theme conveys how every child’s handprint is unique and represents their stories, dreams, desires and hopes, whether completing a round of chemotherapy, celebrating a beautiful new head of hair or playing their favorite sport.
Visitors to the portal and social media channels will find a series of videos profiling child cancer patients and their parents and families with stories of bravery and hope. The website will also include research project overviews from the 2015 grant winners and provide an interactive element, where visitors can lend their own hand in the fight by changing their social media avatar, sharing a child’s story of courage and hope on social channels or donating to fund research. Each week a family’s story will be selected and shared on the Hope On Wheels website and social channels. Hope On Wheels will also launch a new public service announcement (PSA) that asks the public to join Hope On Wheels and add their hand in the fight to #EndChildhoodCancer. Kids, fathers, mothers, doctors and supporters who all have a vested interest in telling the story of kids’ battles with cancer bring the video to life. The PSA can be seen on the Hope On Wheels website and can be shared on social media. To join our effort, please visit the Hope On Wheels website and “click” ‘Add My Handprint’ to join the fight against childhood cancer. Hyundai mailed one million decals to existing Hyundai owners and dealerships. Customers may pick them up at local Hyundai dealerships across the country to show their support for September.
“Hope On Wheels together with Hyundai’s 800-plus dealers across the country have been fighting this terrible disease for 17 years by funding life-saving research,” said Hyundai Hope on Wheels Board Chairman and Managing Partner at Southpoint Hyundai Texas, Scott Stark. “Our Every Handprint Tells A Story campaign is focused on telling every chapter of this unfortunate story that is childhood cancer. Pediatric cancer is an issue that affects children and their parents, siblings, caretakers, friends and loved ones. Cancer knows no income, community, gender or race. We invite the public to join us in this fight by adding their hand in the fight to end childhood cancer.”
Hope On Wheels Visits Washington D.C. Hope On Wheels annual September campaign also includes “DC Days,” a series of childhood cancer awareness building initiatives in Washington, D.C. to honor the brave children, families and medical researchers on the front lines battling kids cancer. The organization will hold a joint press conference with members of the Congressional Childhood Cancer Caucus, co-chaired by U.S. Representatives. Cancer survivors, including Hope On Wheels National Youth Ambassadors — 11-year-old Kenny Thomas from Carson, CA, and 12-year-old Ashley Burnette from Raleigh, NC, will address the audience and share their first hand experiences with cancer. Many of the country’s leading pediatric oncologists, policy makers, members of Congress, Hyundai executives, Hope On Wheels board members and childhood cancer survivors will also participate in a press conference at the Rayburn House Office Building.
Thought Leaders’ Summit, Washington, DC The second annual Hope On Wheels Thought Leaders’ Summit brings together the country’s top pediatric oncologists and this year’s Scholar Grant recipients, providing an arena to explore and discuss the progress in childhood cancer research and exchange ideas and new thinking. Led by Dr. Leonard Sender, Executive Director at the Hyundai Cancer Institute at CHOC Children’s, and Dr. Lisa Diller, Chief Medical Officer of Dana-Farber Children’s Hospital Cancer Care and the Clinical Director of Pediatric Oncology, everyone at the summit shares the same goal: find a cure to end childhood cancer.
2015 Hope On Wheels National Tour Each year, some 15,000 children are diagnosed with cancer, making the disease the leading cause of death by disease for children in the U.S. This year Hope On Wheels is traveling the nation in a Hyundai Tucson to the respective children’s hospital grant winners. The organization’s signature handprint ceremony is held at each event, where pediatric cancer survivors dip their hands in paint and place their handprints on the vehicle.
The highly-competitive Hyundai Scholar Hope Grant program is open to the over 200 Children’s Oncology Group member institutions engaged in pediatric cancer research in the U.S. Grant winners are selected by a scientific review panel. See below for the complete list of Hyundai Scholar winners in 2015.
New $1 million Hyundai Quantum Grant Award Research Grant Hyundai Hope On Wheels has introduced its largest research grant to date. The $1 million grant category — Hyundai Quantum Award –will enable four children’s hospitals to each receive $250,000 per year for four years. The $4 million investment will support life-saving transformational research on cancers with low survival rates. The Quantum grant is open to eligible Children’s Oncology Group (COG) member institutions and the winners will be announced later this year.
2015 Hyundai Run 4 Hope Series The 5th Annual Hyundai Run 4 Hope run/walk series kicks off this year on September 27th with all proceeds benefiting childhood cancer research. Races this year will be held in Fountain Valley, CA (9/27), Chicago (9/27), Atlanta (10/24), Dallas (10/24) and Fort Lauderdale (11/15). Please visit www.HyundaiRun4Hope.org to register for one of the run/walk events.
HYUNDAI HOPE ON WHEELS Hyundai Hope On Wheels® is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is committed to finding a cure for childhood cancer. Launched in 1998, Hyundai Hope On Wheels provides grants to eligible institutions nationwide that are pursuing life-saving research and innovative treatments for the disease. Primary funding for Hyundai Hope On Wheels comes from Hyundai Motor America and its more than 800 U.S. dealers. At the end of its 17th year, Hyundai Hope On Wheels will award more than $100 million towards childhood cancer research in pursuit of a cure.
HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co. of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through more than 820 dealerships nationwide. All Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the Hyundai Assurance program, which includes the 5-year/60,000-mile fully transferable new vehicle limited warranty, Hyundai’s 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty, and five years of complimentary Roadside Assistance. Hyundai Assurance includes Assurance Connected Care that provides owners of Hyundai models equipped with the Hyundai Blue Link telematics system with proactive safety and car care services complimentary for three years. These services include Automatic Collision Notification, Enhanced Roadside Assistance, Vehicle Diagnostic Alert, Monthly Vehicle Health Report and in-vehicle service scheduling.
Children’s of Alabama (Birmingham, AL) University of Arizona Medical Center (Tucson, AZ) Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA) Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA (Los Angeles, CA) Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford (Palo Alto, CA) UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center (Sacramento, CA) Rady Children’s Hospital (San Diego, CA) Children’s Hospital Colorado (Aurora, CO) Yale School of Medicine (New Haven, CT) Children’s National Medical Center (Washington, DC) Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center (Washington, DC) Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Atlanta, GA) Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (Maywood, IL) Kosair Children’s Hospital (Louisville, KY) Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA) MassGeneral Hospital for Children (Boston, MA) UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center (Worcester, MA) Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital (Ann Arbor, MI) Children’s Hospital of Michigan (Detroit, MI) University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital (Minneapolis, MN) St. Louis Children’s Hospital (St. Louis, MO) UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (Chapel Hill, NC) Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC) Columbia University Medical Center (New York, NY) Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY) University Hospitals Rainbow Babies Children’s Hospital (Cleveland, OH) OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital (Portland, OR) Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC (Pittsburgh, PA) St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Memphis, TN) UT Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas, TX) Texas Children’s Hospital (Houston, TX) University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX) Seattle Children’s Hospital (Seattle, WA) University of Wisconsin Children’s Hospital (Madison, WI)
2015 Hyundai Scholar Young Investigator Grant ($150,000) Winners
University of Arizona Medical Center (Tucson, AZ) Children’s Hospital Colorado (Aurora, CO) Children’s National Medical Center (Washington, DC) Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA) University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital (Minneapolis, MN) Joan Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University (New York, NY) Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) Cook Children’s Medical Center (Fort Worth, TX) Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute (Seattle, WA)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A Democratic North Carolina state senator is considering a bid for U.S. Senate in 2016 because he says Washington isn’t working and considers incumbent Republican Richard Burr part of the problem.
Sen. Joel Ford of Charlotte confirmed Tuesday his interest in the Democratic nomination. Ford says he plans later in the week to visit Democrats in Washington who recruit Senate candidates.
Ford joined the state Senate in 2013 and is a former Mecklenburg County Democratic Party chairman. He says Democrats need to develop a platform that brings back unaffiliated voters and some Democrats who have been voting Republican recently.
Ford says he has no timeline for a decision.
Current state Rep. Duane Hall, former House member Deborah Ross and Spring Lake Mayor Chris Rey also are considering Democratic Senate bids.
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WLOS News 13 provides local news, weather forecasts, traffic updates, notices of events and items of interest in the community, sports and entertainment programming for Asheville, NC and nearby towns and communities in Western North Carolina and the Upstate of South Carolina, including the counties of Buncombe, Henderson, Rutherford, Haywood, Polk, Transylvania, McDowell, Mitchell, Madison, Yancey, Jackson, Swain, Macon, Graham, Spartanburg, Greenville, Anderson, Union, Pickens, Oconee, Laurens, Greenwood, Abbeville and also Biltmore Forest, Woodfin, Leicester, Black Mountain, Montreat, Arden, Weaverville, Hendersonville, Etowah, Flat Rock, Mills River, Waynesville, Maggie Valley, Canton, Clyde, Franklin, Cullowhee, Sylva, Cherokee, Marion, Old Fort, Forest City, Lake Lure, Bat Cave, Spindale, Spruce Pine, Bakersville, Burnsville, Tryon, Columbus, Marshall, Mars Hill, Brevard, Bryson City, Cashiers, Greer, Landrum, Clemson, Gaffney, and Easley.
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