Tag Archives: NC Travel News

As you prepare your tax returns for 2012, be warned: A number of states have made or are considering big changes to their state income taxes. With some of those changes already having taken effect, you need to know whether you’re in the line of fire — or in line for a tax break.

1. California

Last November, California voters approved Proposition 30, a measure that imposes two separate tax increases. A quarter-percentage-point increase in the sales tax will affect everyone who shops within the state, but the measure also included an income-tax increase for single filers earning more than $250,000 and joint filers with $500,000 or more in income. Proposition 30 will add 1 to 3 percentage points to the existing top tax bracket through 2018, sending the maximum tax rate up to 12.3 percent. And the tax hike was retroactive, so filers will have to pay higher income taxes on the returns

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The millions of sharks killed every year to feed the vast appetite for shark-fin soup in Asia now have greater protection, after the 178 nations at the world’s biggest wildlife summit voted to crack down on the trade.

Those fishing for oceanic whitetip, porbeagle and three species of hammerhead shark will now require strictly controlled permits to export the fins. The move is a landmark moment for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) because many previous attempts to protect marine species – including these sharks – have failed, largely due to opposition from Japan and China. Those nations argued other bodies have responsibility for fisheries, but their opponents, including the EU, US and Brazil, said Cites is far more effective and conservation campaigners were delighted. Manta rays also won new protection.

“Dealing with fisheries is always hard due the huge economic and political interests involved,” said a delegate from one of the world’s top fin-exporting nations. She added the cultural attachment to serving shark fin soup at weddings in China – now affordable for millions more in the country’s swelling middle class – was very

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BEAUFORT — While the R/V Cape Hatteras is leaving the Duke University Marine Lab, it will be staying in North Carolina. Cape Fear Community College has bought the vessel for its marine technology program.

The National Science Foundation announced in 2010 it was retiring the Cape Hatteras from its research fleet. The foundation operated the vessel from DUML for 31 years. John Nelson of Nelson Yacht Sales of Beaufort acted as the sales agent for the ship.

“The inquiries hardly slowed down,” Mr. Nelson said. “I was blown away; we had almost two dozen interested buyers. I had three people say that if this deal doesn’t go through, call them; they have money ready.”

It looks like the deal will go through, however. David Hardin, CFCC public information officer, said the college intends to finalize the sale Tuesday. There will be an acceptance ceremony scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the college.

While the original asking price for the vessel was $1.8 million, CFCC negotiated to purchase it for $900,000. Funding came from the college’s state equipment funds, institutional funds and private donations

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Charlotte | Triangle | Triad | Coastal | Sandhills

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03/10/2013 06:28 PM

By: Katie Rufener

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Over the past few years, Gerard set out, in stages, to boat the entire length of the Cape Fear again – all the way from Chatham County, just south of Chapel Hill, where it’s formed by the junction of the Deep and Haw rivers, to its mouth at Southport, where it empties the silt that forms the Frying Pan Shoals.

He paddled in a canoe through the rapids with biologist David Webster, an associate dean at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He detoured through the Black River swamps in a kayak with fellow author Virginia Holman and her husband. He cruised much of the lower reaches with Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette. And he talked and sailed with dozens of other experts, informants and all-around characters.

In “Down the Wild Cape Fear,” Gerard recounts the experience, while stopping off to describe the Cape Fear’s history, wildlife, ecology, economics and possible futures.

It’s similar to the strategy that fellow UNCW faculty member David Gessner used in his book “My Green Manifesto,” turning a cruise on Massachusetts’ Charles River into a debate on the future of environmentalism. (Gerard generally cites Gessner in his text.)

Well, the Cape Fear is more than 200 miles

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