High-stakes hide and seek
At the nation's busiest port complex, ships from the Pacific Ocean deposit a new cargo container, on average, every 11 seconds. That's 8,100 a day, 2.9 million a year.
( TONY MECIA, Staff Writer, 09/29/2002 05:52 AM EST)

Back to the classroom
Betsy Blackburn walks to the classroom podium, flashes a quick, nervous smile, then launches into her oral report on basal cell carcinoma, a speech she's been working on for days.
( AMBER VEVERKA, Staff Writer, 08/12/2002 05:35 AM EST)

Empty mills burden Carolinas
They can be as large as the Charlotte Convention Center, date back to the late 1800s and burn like a bonfire. And they are frustrating city planners across the Carolinas.
( CHARLES LUNAN, Staff Writer, 07/22/2002 05:17 AM EST)

Textile heritage stripped away
When Tom Cox shows his home in south Charlotte, it isn't long before he's down on one knee, tracing his fingers over some favorite knot or blemish in his prized heart pine floor.
( CHARLES LUNAN, Staff Writer, 07/21/2002 06:44 AM EST)

In battered place, a play's the thing
Just a few blocks from Main Street, between the railroad tracks and a burned-out mill, sits a tin-sided warehouse that for years was stacked to the rafters with mostly old textile equipment.
( RICK ROTHACKER, Staff Writer, 07/20/2002 09:27 AM EST)

Textile firms struggle to find loans to survive
Textile firms struggle to find loans to survive Only a few years ago, bankers routinely called Cone Mills Corp.'s chief financial officer to pitch special deals on short-term loans.
( RICK ROTHACKER, Staff Writer, 06/30/2002 06:16 AM EST)

Taking a new road
The June sun scorches the pavement at the Charlotte Truck Driving Training School, but Charles Lail is sweating for another reason. He's about to thread a 28,000-pound tractor-trailer between two rows of plastic barrels.
( AMBER VEVERKA, Staff Writer, 06/16/2002 11:49 AM EST)

A puzzled textile worker's letter
An open letter to: Elected leaders From: A Southern textile worker
( GLENN BURKINS, 05/02/2002 02:28 PM EST)

N.C. textile industry on track for new aid
The troubled textile industry has placed North Carolina on the cutting edge of the Bush administration's new approach to economic development, a top Commerce Department official said Wednesday.
( CHARLES LUNAN, Staff Writer, 05/02/2002 02:28 PM EST)

Empty promises will not bring back textile jobs
As the November elections draw closer, few issues stand to dominate regional debate more than the textiles crisis.
( GLENN BURKINS, 05/02/2002 02:28 PM EST)

Politicians neglect South's textiles crisis
With the textiles industry in shambles, it should be clear by now that no knight from Washington will ride on a white horse to save our embattled mill towns.
( GLENN BURKINS, 05/02/2002 02:28 PM EST)

Textile industry likes N.C. voice
The textile industry is applauding the appointment of a native North Carolinian to the top textile post in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
( TONY MECIA, Staff Writer, 05/02/2002 02:24 PM EST)

Textiles' clout unravels
Nearly a decade removed from Washington's political warfare, Bob Umphrey marvels at what had been the textile industry's glory days.
( TONY MECIA, Staff Writer, 05/02/2002 02:24 PM EST)

Town's foundation crumbles
Town's foundation crumbles CLINTON, S.C. -- Trains don't stop here anymore. Police officers roll through the mill village scanning for trouble. And about the only place getting busier is the food bank.
( CHARLES LUNAN, Staff Writer, 05/02/2002 02:21 PM EST)

Gaston losing ground on retraining
If there's a poster child for N.C. manufacturing's malaise, Gaston County is it. More than 7,000 industrial jobs have vanished in the past four years
( AMBER VEVERKA, Staff Writer, 03/31/2002 12:41 PM EST)

Despair in mill town
More than 23,000 textile jobs vanished from the Carolinas last year, a full 11 percent of the industry's work force, and at least 62 plants were closed.
( CHARLES LUNAN, TONY MECIA AND AMBER VEVERKA, Staff Writers, 03/24/2002 12:43 PM EST)