Across the southeast

Study shows higher rate charged to blacks

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Blacks who bought homes across America last year were four times more likely than whites to get high interest rates for mortgage loans, The Charlotte Observer reported Sunday.

The paper analyzed records from 25 of the nation's largest lenders and found that even blacks with incomes higher than $100,000 a year were charged high rates more often than whites with incomes below $40,000.

For decades, blacks struggled to get loans at any price. Lenders ignored entire black neighborhoods, a practice called redlining.

Last year, the nation's 10 largest banks still denied black applicants twice as often as whites. On average they made only 5 percent of their home loans to blacks, according to the report.

Experts, studies and The Observer's analysis pointed to three reasons why blacks get fewer market-rate loans:

- Discrimination can occur throughout the lending process.

- Blacks on average have less wealth and more credit problems.

- Blacks on average are less knowledgeable about the home-buying process.

Lenders said that they don't consider race in lending decisions and that the availability of loans to blacks, even at higher rates, constitutes progress.

Cities may benefit from Vioxx fallout

RALEIGH, N.C. - While legal woes continue to mount for the pharmaceutical industry over Vioxx, the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area's high concentration of drug-testing companies could benefit from the fallout.

The Vioxx debacle is increasing political and regulatory scrutiny, forcing drug companies to revisit their operations, said Ken Lee of Hatteras BioCapital, a Durham firm that invests in young drug companies. That could boost opportunities for thousands of workers in the area, referred to as the Triangle.

"If this results in more testing, this state will benefit more than anybody," he said.

The most obvious beneficiaries are local companies, researchers and physicians involved in the clinical testing of experimental drugs.

Other potential beneficiaries include technology companies that cater to the drug-testing industry; biotechnology companies pursuing niche drugs for small, well-defined groups of patients; and local law firms representing Vioxx cases.

"This is a big turn of what was happening," Mr. Lee said. "It used to be everybody just worried about getting a product to market. Now, drug companies have to rethink."

Truckers are trained to watch for terrorists

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. - Terrorists beware: Lesley "Lucky" Duke might be watching.

The Hertford trucker recently signed up for the national Highway Watch Program, a federal initiative that puts truck drivers and others on the front lines of America's domestic anti-terrorism efforts.

Mr. Duke is one of more than 100,000 commercial drivers who have been trained to report potential terrorist activity to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to an American Trucking Association spokesman.

Because he drives an 18-wheeler across North America, Mr. Duke said he has the opportunity to spot potential threats.

"I drive coast to coast," he said. "I go to different companies (with truckloads), and Homeland Security asked me to be a Highway Watch person (who) is the eyes for America."

With a toll-free phone number in hand, commercial drivers can phone in activity that looks out of the ordinary.

Although it's obviously garnered more attention since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the Highway Watch program began in 1998 as a highway safety tool, ATA spokesman John Willard said.