The total amount of money in North Carolina's college-savings plan this week passed half a billion dollars for the first time.

The recent stock-market rebound and renewed interest in saving money during the recession are spurring more people to invest in the state's 529 plan. The total invested and number of accounts are up about 20 percent in the past year.

Boeing has blown off North Carolina, again. South Carolina still has a chance.

CEO Jim McNerney told Wall Street analysts on an earnings conference call today that the company has narrowed its choices for a second 787 Dreamliner assembly plant to Charleston, S.C., and Everett, Wash. He expects to announce a decision in the next couple of weeks.

The N.C. Global TransPark in Kinston was cited as a competitor for the new plant in a report that Washington state officials used to lobby Boeing.

The Kinston park, about 90 miles southeast of Raleigh, also was in the running for a Boeing assembly plant earlier this decade, but lost to Washington.

It's not clear whether North Carolina was a legitimate contender this time, since state and local officials have kept quiet about any efforts to lure Boeing here, despite vocal lobbying in Washington state. But Gov. Bev Perdue and others repeatedly have said they want to expand this state's aerospace and aviation industries and attract new jobs.

Also today, Boeing reported a $1.56 billion third-quarter loss, one of the biggest in its history. The loss was partly because of delays in the 787 Dreamliner program.

Media General reported weaker third-quarter results for its North Carolina properties, which include NBC 17 in Raleigh and the Winston-Salem Journal.

The Richmond, Va.-based company this morning reported a total net loss of $62.5 million. But CEO Marshall Morton said he is "seeing signs of strengthening in advertiser spending.

"We believe that local and national advertiser spending patterns are firming somewhat, especially on the broadcast side," Morton said in a prepared statement. "Media General is well positioned to benefit from an economic recovery."

As with most newspaper publishers and broadcasters, the recession and slump in ad spending has taken its toll on Media General. The company has 770 fewer full-time employees this year than last. And by the end of 2009, a furlough program will have included 15 unpaid days off per employee, including four days in the fourth quarter.

Shares of LED maker Cree soared to their highest price in nearly nine years in mid-day trading today in the wake of the company's better-than-expected quarterly results.

Cree shares were trading at $45.30, up 10 percent, around noon. Shares of the Durham-based company fetched less than $16 at the outset of this year.

Morgan Joseph analyst Ilya Grozovsky significantly raised his revenue and profit forecasts for Cree and upgraded his rating on the stock to a "buy." The analyst's new 12-month target price for the stock is $55.

"We believe Cree's business has reached an inflection point, given planned capital expenditures and what we believe is greater adoption of LED lighting," Grozovsky wrote in a research report.

Freedom Group, the Madison-based maker of firearms and ammunition, filed to raise up to $200 million in an initial public offering of stock.

The company's brands include Remington, Marlin and Bushmaster.

Freedom Group was formed by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which was also behind Talecris Biotherapeutics of Research Triangle Park and its recent successful IPO.

Talecris makes medicines from blood plasma and raised $950 million in its IPO.

Freedom Group did not indicate in its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission how many shares it plans to sell or at what price. The filing follows a flurry of recent IPO activity, including planned offerings from Dole Food and Hyatt Hotels.

Freedom Group reported net sales of $427.3 million for the six months ended June 30. The company has more than 2,700 employees and 11 manufacturing facilities.

Its headquarters is located about 110 miles northwest of Raleigh.

The No. 2 executive at WakeMed, one of Wake County's largest private employers, is leaving to run a hospital in Milwaukee.

Deborah G. Friberg joined WakeMed in 1995 and has served as chief operating officer since 2006. The Raleigh-based hospital system has hospital campuses and clinics across Wake County and about 7,700 employees.

She is moving to Columbia St. Mary's in Milwaukee, a health system of four hospitals, 62 clinics, a nursing college and several urgent-care facilities. The system is preparing to open a $500 million hospital that Friberg will oversee as president.

LED maker Cree, which recently announced plans to hired hundreds of new workers at its Durham manufacturing complex, has once again issued quarterly results that are better than analysts expected.

Cree reported this afternoon shortly after the markets closed that it posted a profit of $21 million, or 23 cents per share, versus $5.9 million a year ago.

Revenue for Cree's fiscal first quarter, which ended Sept. 27, totaled $169.1 million. That was up 20 percent compared to a year ago and a 14 percent hike compared to the immediately preceding quarter.

"We got off to a very good start in Q1, as both revenue and profits exceeded our targets," CEO Chuck Swoboda said in a prepared statement. "We are benefitting from continued LED lighting adoption and high factory utilization and are well positioned for solid growth in Q2."

Capital Bank reported today that it realized a $3 million profit in the third quarter, up 50 percent from a year ago.

The Raleigh-based bank benefitted from ann improved net interest margin, a measure of profitability on loans and investments, and a $2.1 million income tax benefit that included a $504,000 refund.

"While we continue to face a difficult economy, we are encouraged by the positive trends in our net interest margin and core earnings," CEO Grant Yarber said in a prepared statement.

The public staff for the state Utilities Commission and Duke Energy have reached an agreement on Duke's request for a 13 percent residential rate increase to cover operating expenses.

The propsal, which must be approved by the Utilities Commission, would allow Duke to raise residential rates by about 7 percent over two years, said Robert Gruber, executive director of the Utility Commission's public staff.

The two-year increase will add $7.31 to the monthly bill for a household that uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. Currently, a Duke Energy customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours a month pays $90.19.

The first of the two rate increases will occur Jan. 1 and will add $3.70, or 4 percent, to an average residential customer's bill.

Duke's request for a 13 percent increase would have added about $11 a month to residential bills. Duke raised rates by about 5 percent on Sept. 1 to offset higher energy prices.

The Charlotte-based utility has 4 million electricity customers in five states, including about 160,000 in the western Triangle.

A small Durham company that stores biological samples for companies, university researchers and others has raised $400,000 from so-called angel investors.

Kryosphere, which also recently celebrated its second anniversary, stores millions of samples in massive freezers (thus the penguin images in its marketing materials). The company employs eight full-time workers and adds more part-timers as needed, said CEO and co-founder Eric Hallman.

"With automated systems, we're not going to be huge employers," he added.

The company is seeing increasing demand as biotech and pharmaceutical companies outsource sample storage to reduce the hassle and cost, Hallman said.