UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School started its new online MBA program this week with a welcome gift: a mostly positive write-up in the Wall Street Journal.

The must-read newspaper for corporate executives noted that UNC is making a "risky online bet," with the "first program of its kind from a top-20 U.S. business school." One big risk is overcoming the stigma that some online MBA programs "are of low quality or aren't as competitive as a regular full-time program."

But the story also predicts that UNC's strong reputation and high admission standards will appeal to busy executives, especially in areas of the country that don't have an MBA program nearby.

UNC announced the MCA@UNC program last fall. Its first class includes 19 students, who will shell out $89,000 for the two-year program. 

Antitrust regulators have expanded a probe of Blue Cross health insurance plans' contracts with hospitals to several more states, including North Carolina, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The investigation is looking into whether Blue Cross plans forced hospitals to sign contracts that stifle competition from rival insurers and raise prices for patients. The so-called "most-favored nation" clauses have been a focus of a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit filed last fall against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

The federal investigators have sent civil subpoenas to Blue plans in other states, including Ohio, Kansas, Virginia and North Carolina, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Lew Borman, a spokesman for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, declined to comment. The Chapel Hill company is this state's largest health insurer, with 3.7 million members.

While the Triangle is home to dozens of promising young companies backed by venture capitalists, only one made an exclusive list.

Appia, the Durham company that helps mobile-phone companies build online "apps stores" is the only local firm on the Wall Street Journal's 2011 list of the top 50 venture-funded companies.

The list, which is stocked mostly with California health and technology firms, puts Appia at No. 15.

The newspaper considered 5,743 venture-backed companies to find those with "the greatest promise to succeed."

Lenovo is winning customers in Russia and India, two important emerging markets for the personal-computer company, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The company is offering colorful and cut-rate models that attract first-time and low-income buyers. Lenovo also is using retail franchisees who understand the individual markets and increasing advertising. That includes one of the world's biggest billboards, a 1,300-foot-long spot near the Kremlin, the newspaper reports.

Lenovo, which bought IBM's PC business in 2005, is trying to offset slower sales in the U.S. and other developed markets. The Chinese company has a headquarters facility in Morrisville, where it employs about 1,500 people who design, test and market laptops and other products.

SAS Institute plans to double its legal and consultant expenses in 2011, as the Cary software company tries to sort through changes coming under the federal health overhaul.

SAS is one of many companies dealing with the administrative headaches, and higher costs, brought by the reform law, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"There's administrative burden just to try and understand the 2,400 pages of the document," SAS vice president of human resources Jenn Mann told the newspaper. She declined to comment on how much SAS spends on health coverage or how much more it will pay in legal expenses.

Apple is considering doubling the size of its already massive data center being built in western North Carolina, according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal.

Apple's $1 billion data center in Maiden, about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte, will include 500,000 square feet of space. It's expected to employ 50 people.

The report on the Journal's All Things Digital blog notes that Apple may be considering using the facility to offer so-called "cloud services" for iTunes and other products.

That would mean iTunes libraries would be streamed to users and could be accessed from anywhere.
 

Glenn Boyette's success turning his Clayton farm into a holiday entertainment destination has garnered some national attention.

Boyette was the first example in a front-page Wall Street Journal story today about farmers nationwide making money from "agri-tainment" by adding haunted houses, corn mazes and more.

Boyette, 58, told the newspaper that he took over the farm from an uncle in the late 1980s and over time saw profits dry up. Four years ago, he decided to try something new.

Now his 150-acre farm on Loop Road in Johnston County is home to Clayton Fear Farm, a collection of three haunted houses, corn maze, pumpkin patch and other Halloween attractions. In a couple of months, it will switch to Lights on the Neuse, a winter wonderland of blinking lights and decorations.

The buzz about Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina's plan to refund $155.8 million isn't dying down.

Now the merits of the move and its political implications are being debated in the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, extending the time that Blue Cross and N.C. Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin spend in the national spotlight.

Two of North Carolina's largest companies could be headed for a showdown.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that GlaxoSmithKline, which has its U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, has asked the Food and Drug Administration to remove dissolvable smokeless tobacco products from stores.

Reynolds American, based down the road in Winston-Salem, has been test-marketing tiny lozenges,  called Camel Orbs, in several cities, the WSJ reports. The lozenges are basically smokeless tobacco products.

The new dissolvable tobacco products are competition for GSK's quit-smoking products such as Nicorette gum. In its letter to the FDA, sent after the agency asked for public comment on the issue, GSK expressed concern that the new products are not being marketed in a way that protects the public health.

The FDA, according to the WSJ, has already expressed its own concerns about the lozenges, writing to Reynolds that their candy-like appearance may appeal to kids.

Does the end of the Wake County school system's socioeconomic diversity policy mean that economic affirmative action programs are also in doubt?

That's the question raised today in a Wall Street Journal blog column by Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. In the column, Brown writes that the Wake fight raises questions about public support for using economics in "sensitive matters such as college admission and hiring and public contracting."

"We’ll see what happens, but there has been no major wave sweeping the country implementing 'economic diversity' plans, and what is happening in Wake County is not a good omen for those who had hoped it would become more popular," Brown writes.