Wake Tech Community College is offering up to $500 per student to help displaced tobacco workers cover the cost of retraining in the auto detailing, HVAC and hospitality fields.

Wake Tech has already awarded the scholarships to nine students to defray the costs of 10-week retraining courses. The community college plans to distribute the rest of the money through November.

At the current rate, more than 50 students could qualify for the scholarships, which have averaged out to $175 per student so far. The courses cost $175 each, but some students may qualify for more, depending on their financial need.

The scholarships come from a $10,000 grant Wake Tech received from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission. Information on applying is available from Wake Tech's Continuing Education program.

Raleigh-based CB Holdings has reached an agreement to buy the assets of Renegade Holdings, a cigarette manufacturer in Davie County.

Renegade Holdings is the privately-held parent of Renegade Tobacco and Alternative Brands. Its products include Tucson cigarettes and Murano cigars.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The combined company will employ about 150 people, according to a statement issued by CB Holdings.

The Raleigh company, which is owned by Bill Barker and Charles Fuller, owns the tobacco brands Palmetto and Proud Smoke. It also owns a manufacturing facility in South Boston, Va., a sales and distribution company in Raleigh and an organic coffee company, Cherokee Coffee.

According to a statement issued by CB Holdings, the company has been working on the acquisition for more than a year and expects the deal to close in October.

Universal Leaf North America is laying off 300 seasonal employees at its tobacco processing facility in Nashville, 45 miles northeast of Raleigh.

The company filed a notice today with the N.C. Department of Commerce under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

The company said in the letter that the layoffs are in response to reduced customer demand.

All the employees are to be let go on Sept. 6.

Universal Leaf is part of Richmond-based Universal Corporation, a major buyer and processor of leaf tobacco.

The company operates in more than 30 countries and employs more than 24,000 permanent and seasonal workers.

Susan Ivey, who announced last week that she plans to retire as  Reynolds American's top executive, got leadership advice from her mother.

One message is that you have two ears and one mouth for a reason, Ivey told a group of Wake Forest University business students on Thursday, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.

“Great leaders listen, they learn and then they lead,” Ivey said. "The common wisdom is that great leaders are great communicators. Most of them are, but the less-common wisdom is that 80 percent of good communicating is good listening.”

It was one of Ivey’s first public appearances since her announcement that she plans to retire as Reynolds’ chairwoman on Oct. 31 and as CEO on Feb. 28.

Susan Ivey plans to retire early next year as CEO of tobacco maker Reynolds American, one of the state's largest publicly traded companies.

Ivey, 51, has run Reynolds since 2004, and has expanded the Winston-Salem company beyond its core market of Camel, Natural American Spirit and other cigarettes into smokeless tobacco and even nicotine replacement products.

Fortune magazine last month named Ivey No. 22 on its annual list of the most powerful women in business.

Daniel Delen, head of the company's cigarette division will replace Ivey as CEO in February. Thomas Wajnert, a Reynolds director, will replace Ivey as chairman of the board Nov. 1.

A company developing new vaccines announced this morning that it will parlay a $21 million Defense Department grant to build an 87,000-square-foot production facility in Research Triangle Park.

Medicago, a Quebec company, said this morning it would create 85 jobs here paying $50,229 on average, not including benefits. Creating the jobs, which pay lower than the Durham County average wage, would net the company a $128,000 state grant.

Medicago specializes in producing vaccines by growing cultures on tobacco leaves, a process that reduces the time needed to create vaccines from six months to several weeks. The technology could produce high quantities of vaccine in emergencies, such as epidemics or bioterror attacks, according to state and company officials.

"This is really breakthrough science they're working on," said Sam Taylor, president of N.C. Biosciences Organization, an industry trade group.

Alliance One of Morrisville and another tobacco company agreed to pay nearly $30 million to settle charges that they bribed foreign officials to get lucrative overseas tobacco sales contracts.

The companies, Universal Corp. of Richmond, Va., and Alliance One, faced civil and criminal charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department, the government said today.

"These large tobacco merchants used secret payments to improperly win business and curry favor with foreign government officials around the globe," said Christopher Conte, associated director of the SEC's enforcement division.

Alliance One is accused of bribing officials in Thailand, China, Greece, Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan. Universal was accused of bribing officials in Thailand, Malawi and Mozambique.

A commission set up with tobacco settlement money to aid farmers and agri-businesses has awarded $6.1 million in grants to 36 projects.

The grants range from $200,000 to buy equipment to quick freeze prawns to $21,864 for an organic bread flour project in Pittsboro.

Since 2002, the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission has awarded money to public and nonprofit agencies whose goal is to strengthen areas of the state that have been dependent on tobacco. Over the years, the grants have funded new farmers markets, job training and local food coalitions.

The commission's funding comes from money paid by the tobacco companies in a settlement with attorneys general of 48 states. The Commission along with the Golden Leaf Foundation and the Health and Wellness Trust Fund is charged distributing North Carolina's portion of the settlement.

For a complete list of the most recent awards, visit the commission's Web site here.

Alliance One International, which processes and sells tobacco around the world, reported weaker quarterly results.

The Morrisville-based company was formed following the 2005 merger of tobacco merchants Dimon of Danville, Va., and Standard Commercial of Wilson.

Sales for the quarter ended Dec. 31 fell to $658.4 million, down nearly 5 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. Net income was $47.3 million during the recent quarter, down about 20 percent.

A symbol of North Carolina's tobacco history located in downtown Winston-Salem is on the market.

Cigarette maker Reynolds American is trying to sell its historic former headquarters, the Winston-Salem Journal reports this morning. The Reynolds building is worth about $12.3 million, according to Forsyth County tax records, and could be leased for office space or renovated into a mixed-use project.

The 22-story building was the tallest south of Baltimore when it opened in 1929 and housed employees of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. until recently when the company began cutting jobs and consolidating its Winston-Salem operations into another building.

The architecture firm that designed it, Shreve & Lamb, went on to build a bigger version in Manhattan: the Empire State Building.

Read the full Winston-Salem Journal report here.