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I rarely need to look far to find something to admire in our dedicated employees. Today I found it in the form of a marked donation box at the back entrance of our building.

A few days ago, Barbara Coram, Administrative Manager at the Mail Service Center, heard about a local business that was collecting new and gently worn closed-toe shoes to send to survivors of the earthquake in Haiti. Rather than just drop off a donation on her own, she asked co-workers if they thought it might make a good group project. They did.

So did the rest of us here at the Department of Administration. On behalf of our employees, I invite those who work for other agencies in the Administration Building, as well others who visit here, to join us in this simple humanitarian effort. Earthquake survivors need decent footwear to avoid additional injury from the debris that litters their communities. This small gift could go a long way toward helping Haitians heal from this tragedy.

Donations will be accepted through Feb. 25. We send our thanks to the kind folks at the Mail Service Center, and to Fleet Feet shoe store, which will arrange for the donations to be sent to Haiti. Involving us in your generous actions make us all better people.

The 2010 Census is being promoted with a simple message: 10 questions in 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, history shows that it’s just not that simple to convince folks to take those 10 minutes, even when they’re told that each uncounted resident could cost North Carolina about $1,000 each in potential federal funding.

That’s why I’ve joined a group of legislators, educators and community leaders to reach out to our citizens in a series of Complete Count Census Forums. This week we gathered in Robeson County, and we’ll hold additional meetings in other historically undercounted areas.

My message focuses on what citizens give up by ignoring this essential count. Those who choose to not participate in the Census impact entitlement to programs designed to benefit their communities. In other words, miscounting the population could unconstitutionally deny minority groups’ political representation or protection under the Voting Rights Act. It also could deny local jurisdictions grant funds from federal programs.

The Census Bureau has taken steps to simplify the form, increase local resources and hire multilingual census takers who can reach out to hard-to-count population groups, reducing the inherent delays and costs in making multiple callbacks to non-responding households.

This endeavor also creates quality job opportunities for North Carolinians, whose hard work will result in a more accurate count of our residents and fair-share funding for necessary programs. I encourage everyone to get involved and get counted.  It truly matters – not just today, but for how we grow and prosper over the next 10 years.

Office of State Personnel employees wore red today, National Wear Red Day, to show their support for women’s heart disease awareness.

Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States.  One in four women dies of heart disease, while one in 30 dies of breast cancer.

Love your heart and the heart of your loved ones by:
• Avoiding the use of tobacco;
• Eating foods low in salt and saturated fat;
• Drinking plenty of water;
• Keeping your weight in a healthy range
• Being as physically active as possible; and
• If you are at risk for heart disease, discussing risk reductions options with your doctor.

When IBM first came to RTP decades ago, it helped establish North Carolina as a world leader in the IT economy.  Now, IBM is helping to establish North Carolina as a world leader in the green economy.

Yesterday, I attended the opening of IBM’s new green data center in RTP.  This building promises to be IBM’s greenest data center in the world.  It’s proof that green is gold for North Carolina.  Growing our green economy is critical to my mission to create jobs, jobs and more jobs for North Carolinians and to ensure North Carolina’s economy is poised to compete globally in the long term. 

When you take a look at this data center you’ll feel as though you’re looking into the future.   You’ll see green technologies that will help define North Carolina as a world leader in the green economy for years to come.  Innovative technologies such as using outside air to cool the data center throughout almost half the year.

IBM could have chosen any number of states or countries around the globe to build its greenest data center, but they chose North Carolina.  I applaud IBM for their continued commitment to North Carolina.

Today was an historic day for North Carolina in terms of emergency training and preparedness.  Officials at the city, county, state and federal levels, as well as the university and private sectors, came together to practice and learn how each agency would respond to a terrorist attack in our state.

The discussion-based exercise was held at the direction of Gov. Bev Perdue, who wanted to bring these leaders and agencies together with the common goal of making us better prepared and able to respond to such a manmade disaster.

Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, Attorney General Roy Cooper and more than 100 leaders participated in the exercise, including state legislators and representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, State Bureau of Investigation, local universities and private industry.

The end result is that we gained a better appreciation of how each agency operates and interacts with one another.  Lessons learned will be applied to help us to be better prepared, coordinated in our responses and able to communicate more readily.

On behalf of the Governor and the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, I thank all who participated and continue to invest their  time into this critical effort.

This Friday, the N.C. Council for Women encourages all North Carolinians, male and female, to make the choice to wear your heart on your sleeve – or your dress, jacket, slacks or even your shoes – in support of  National Wear Red Day.

Women are so often the caregivers in the home or workplace that they tend to neglect their own health issues. It is vital that we encourage our mothers and daughters, sisters and aunts, co-workers and neighbors to take care of themselves and seek cardiovascular screenings that can save lives.

The American Heart Association reports that women are dying at a rate of almost one per minute due to heart disease and stroke. Don’t let you or someone you love become a deadly statistic. For information, consult your physician or visit www.goredforwomen.org.

John Howell had been on duty for 36 hours – straight – when I visited the Orange County Maintenance Yard that he supervises about noon today. So had most of his crew of about 3 dozen folks, working through the night to salt and plow the major arteries in the territory they are responsible for. 

They had cleared and re-cleared the 350 or so miles of primary roadway, mostly Interstate 85 and Interstate 40, and the light traffic on the highways was moving smoothly. There were lots of 18-wheelers still carrying commerce, fewer passenger cars and a handful of vehicles nosed into snowdrifts along the side of the road. Really, why do these people need to be out?

The winter storm had been merciful, in a way, to Central North Carolina, because it arrived on a Friday night after most commuter traffic had cleared the highways, ahead of a weekend when most of us didn’t need to be travelling.

Still, the storm is a challenge for Howell and his crew, because below-freezing temperatures today weren’t allowing the snow/ice sheet on the road to melt. Their focus today is getting all the primary roads to bare pavement. – but the ice coat tonight will be a problem. Tomorrow, they’ll move on to the web of secondary roads out in the county, hoping to get them cleared for school opening Monday.

Do you know how they clear the interstates? It’s a sight to see: A fleet of 10 vehicles – six motor graders, four salt/snowplow trucks - sweep down one side of the interstate in single-wing formation. Each plow shoulders snow to its companion to the right, until the entire freeze is deposited to the roadside.  Along behind come salt trucks, to keep the residue from re-freezing. 

“It takes a lot of coordination, it takes a lot of people, it takes a lot of teamwork,” Howell said.

I had the good fortune of riding along with Shawn Garrard, an 18-year DOT veteran whose regular job is transportation supervisor.  “This is the most challenging part of my job,” he said. “It’s physically challenging, it’s mentally challenging. You’re up against Mother Nature.”

And against your own endurance. All the crew had worked through the night, leaving their families at home in tough conditions so they could clear the way for the rest of us. The job is harder this winter, because budget cuts have reduced Howell’s team by about 25 percent. The same number of miles to maintain, with fewer people. They’ll get a few hours rest tonight, then back on the plows all day tomorrow.

Next time you see those yellow trucks plowing down the road, think about the extra effort by the Shawn Garrards of DOT. They make travel safer and easier for the rest of us.

As Chief Engineer of NCDOT, I help coordinate ice and snow removal efforts statewide – but 15 years ago, I was one of the guys working at the local level to prepare for a storm. Today, I’m reminded of what it was like working those long hours in tough conditions.  
Not only will it be cold, but it could be dangerous.

We’ve been in constant contact with our engineers in the field to make sure everyone is equipped and ready to go when winter weather hits. NCDOT crews have laid salt brine on the roads to prevent ice from forming on the pavement. Our maintenance yards are fully stocked with salt to help melt ice and snow. Snow plows and other snow removal equipment are fully functional and ready to help keep the roads clear during and after the storm.

Crews are prepared to work overtime this weekend, scheduling special shifts and keeping additional staff on standby to ensure they can adequately respond to storm conditions. Times like now, we work as one team - those that see minimal bad weather will be able to move their staff and equipment if necessary to places that have been harder hit.

It will be a long weekend for a number of NCDOT employees, many of whom are leaving their families at home while they work to keep the roads safe for you and your loved ones. I encourage everyone to try and be where you need to be by midnight tonight and stay off the roads this weekend so we can keep our crews, and your families, as safe as possible.

He was born in 1910, four years before the Guns of August signaled the start of The Great War, back when the average life expectancy for men in America was 48.4 years.

Jesse B. Dafford was born and raised in Duplin County, where he started his teaching career in a one-room school in Beulaville and become something of a local legend for his raccoon hunting skills. The call of duty led him abroad during World War II, when he served with the Ninth U.S. Army in combat operations throughout Europe and the Pacific Theater.

When he finished, he went back right home, where he served local students and families 50-plus years, with more than 30 of them as principal of C.W. Dobbins Elementary School in Wallace. He also is a senior deacon at Greater St. Luke’s Holy Church in Rose Hill.

Thirty months ago, when his health declined, Daffard became a resident at the State Veterans Nursing Home in Fayetteville. He is confined to a wheelchair now, but his contributions to the military and his community are still well remembered.

It was no surprise, then, that a crowd gathered on Jan. 18 to celebrate Dafford’s 100th birthday. Among the dignitaries was Sen. Charlie Albertson of Duplin County and school system officials. Daffard’s wife Estelle, who will turn 94 in April, attended with the party with their two daughters and a niece who traveled for the occasion from Washington, D.C. A busload of friends from their church, ranging from toddlers to near contemporaries, were there, too.

The Senator, whose older brother was among Dafford’s hunting buddies, and others warmly commended him on his lifetime of public service. I was especially struck by gentleman from his church who recalled “Mr. Dafford’s insistence that we always get good grades. He said we’d appreciate the hard work later, and I can tell you, sir, that I certainly do.”

In the last 50 years, North Carolina’s spectacular national and global success has been due to our state’s leaders willingness and ability to be on the cutting edge of innovative thinking, policy and action.  As a result North Carolina is full of growing and innovative companies like Geomagic and new leaders like Ping Fu.

Fu, co-founder of Geomagic, was recently honored by the White House as a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama at the President’s State of the Union Address.  Geomagic is a leading provider of 3D software for creating digital models of physical objects.  They are also a growing company that continues to create new jobs despite the tough economic times.

Gov. Perdue’s efforts such as the Innovation Council and investments in the green economy, future workforce needs and education, keeps our state on the cutting edge.  In the coming months and years, Gov. Perdue’s foresight and leadership will pay off in jobs and new successes for North Carolina companies, in much the same way that Geomagic is succeeding today.