Asheville Citizen-Times

They are all the rage in Boone - almost required wear to Appalachian State football games.

Since the Mountaineers’ shocking 34-32 upset of fifth-ranked Michigan Sept. 1, T-shirts commemorating the victory have been the dominant dress for students and fans.

ASU Athletic Director Charlie Cobb said T-shirt sales have rivaled those of a school reaching basketball’s Final Four and could surpass the 100,000 mark.

Since sales are still strong, final retail numbers aren’t available, but Cobb estimates the school’s revenue could be “anywhere between $50,000 and $500,000.”

Samantha Stevens, ASU’s marketing and licensing director, said local retailers are reporting record sales.

The ASU online store usually gets about 50 orders per week but has received more than 7,000 since the Michigan game, the first time a team in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) defeated an opponent ranked in the Football Bowl Subdivision (I-A).
Lorraine Childers, assistant director and merchandise manager of the ASU bookstore, said there have been “double-digit” sales increases from prior to the Michigan game, with sales stronger than after ASU won the FCS national championship the past two seasons.

The bookstore had to turn down opportunities to sell thousands more T-shirts. State law requires university bookstores to focus on sales to faculty, staff, students and their immediate families so schools don’t compete with private retailers.   Read full story

Drop reflects fewer folks hunting work  

News and Observer
The state unemployment rate dropped in August for the first time in seven months, but the decline was partly the result of fewer people looking for work.

North Carolina’s jobless rate dipped to 4.8 percent in August from 5 percent in July, the first month-over-month decline since February, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Security Commission.

North Carolina’s unemployment rate remains slightly above the national average of 4.6 percent.

“Most economists would argue that a rate under 5 percent is considered full employment, so these numbers are pretty good,” said Harry Davis, a professor at Appalachian State University and an economist for the N.C. Bankers Association.

The August jobs report for the Triangle, due next week, is expected to show a lower unemployment rate as companies such as Quintiles and Fidelity continue to add jobs.

But Davis and others say a seasonally adjusted drop of about 12,000 people in the state’s labor force, coupled with problems in the national economy, could mean a slowdown in the coming months.   Read full story

New Scientist

It’s a common complaint of marathon runners and soldiers alike. Overdo the exercise and you fall victim to illness, particularly chest infections. Now it seems that quercetin - a flavonoid found in fruits, berries and tea - may protect them.

For the past few years, DARPA - the Pentagon’s research arm - has been sponsoring studies of quercetin in the hope that it could protect US troops. “During missions, soldiers are running around for two or three days with heavy packs on. They don’t eat or sleep, and infections are as much of a problem if not a more serious issue than injuries,” says David Nieman at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, who led the research.   Read full story

Winston-Salem Journal

In most years, fall means crisp days and trees filled with brightly colored leaves.

But this summer’s drought may mean that fall-leaf color in many parts of the state, including the Piedmont, will be muted. Leaves on some trees likely will turn brown, state forestry experts say.

The best bet for color may be the northwestern mountain counties, which appear to have gotten just enough rain to produce really good color, said Gary Walker, a biology professor at Appalachian State University in Boone.

Walker also is the university’s unofficial spokesman on fall leaves, each year making predictions on how fall color will shake out.

A wet spring and early summer and scattered thunderstorms the past month helped forests in those counties, including Watauga, weather the drought, he said.

And he went out on a limb, predicting that color there will be brilliant, especially at higher elevations.

“I’m pretty optimistic, actually,” Walker said. “What we really need now is a frost, and we may be looking at better-than-average color this year, at least around here. The season’s duration will be a little shorter, but I feel confident that, if folks take the time to drive around, they’re going to see good color.”   Read full story

TriCities.com

A 23-year-old man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of an Appalachian State University student.

Kyle Triplett is one of three defendants in the case. He entered the plea yesterday in Watauga County Superior Court. He’s been sentenced to at least 40 years in prison. Read full story

Schools see teams raising enrollment

Raleigh News and Observer
It’s September, time for the spectacle of big-time college football. Increasingly in North Carolina, it’s the season of small-time college football, too. Gridiron fever is growing in North Carolina, where colleges large and small are rushing into the costly sport. They are tapping alumni donations, building stadiums, hiring coaches and raising student fees. They are not in it for bowl games or money. They see football as a quintessential college experience and a recruiting tool to lure today’s college students, who want amenities and entertainment.

Football, with its large rosters, scholarship budgets and big-ticket facilities, can be risky. It is the most expensive sport to operate, yet more than 100 colleges and universities have added the sport in the past 20 years, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Dan Fulks, a research consultant for the NCAA who analyzes college sports spending, said fewer than 20 Division I universities make money on athletics. In Division IA, 56 percent of football teams make money, with an average profit of $11.5 million, and the rest lose an average of $2.5 million.
But in Division II, Fulks said, no school makes a profit on sports. The average deficit is $3.5 million overall and $745,000 in football. About two-thirds of the athletics budgets at these schools comes from the universities themselves. Only 3 percent comes from ticket sales and 6 percent from boosters; the rest is from student fees.

Appalachian State University received $400,000 from the University of Michigan to play at the Big House in Ann Arbor. It proved to be an expensive and humiliating loss for Michigan and a once-in-a-lifetime victory for Appalachian. ASU has quadrupled its revenues from sales of logo items in two years, after it won back-to-back national championships in the former Division I-AA.     Read full story

News and Observer

Most fall color prognosticators say the odds of the United States finding Osama bin Laden are better than yours for finding good color in the North Carolina mountains this fall. Gary Walker believes it depends on which cave you look in.

Or rather, which cove.

“I don’t think it’s going to be as terrible as most people are predicting,” says Walker, a biology professor at Appalachian State University in Boone.

Walker’s view is a bit contrarian, given the severe drought plaguing the state. Hot, dry summer weather stresses trees, causing them to put more energy into survival. Come fall, they often drop their leaves before the leaves turn color.

But all it takes to salvage the color is an early frost followed by warm, sunny days. “The earlier we have frosts, the better,” Walker says.

The drab forecasts assume that all the mountains have been dry. In fact, Walker says, the mountains north of Boone have had pretty good rainfall.

“Certainly the Parkway on this end should be nice,” he says. Mount Jefferson and Elk Knob state natural areas and Three Tops Mountain could be good options as well.   Read full story

News and Observer and Asheville Citizen-Times

It was Cynthia Busche’s first day as a nurse in the Mission Hospitals emergency department, but she is no stranger to the nursing world.

The 48-year-old Candler resident has been working in nursing for 25 years, and said she has seen nursing shortages throughout her career.

“The projections are even scarier for three years from now,” she said after she wheeled a patient down the hall. “Those of us who’ve been in nursing so long are getting older, and with the baby boomers getting older we have deals between the nurses about who’s going to take care of whom.”

Western North Carolina’s nursing shortage may not be dire now, but it could get worse as more nurses like Busche reach retirement age. Combined with an aging population, a nursing supply that can’t meet anticipated demand and a lack of nurse educators, experts say the region could face a severe shortage of nurses in the coming years.

Appalachian State University started its nursing program last fall in response to the shortages and has about 40 new students enrolled in its associate’s degree to bachelor’s degree program. The school is also developing a master’s program with a teaching focus.   Read full story