North Carolina State University has expanded its campus with help from a state bond bill and by embracing creative private-public partnerships, as Keith Regan learns from Kevin MacNaughtonNearly every public university struggles to secure the funding needed to fuel its facilities expansion plans. North Carolina State University is no exception, and its creative approach to enabling growth is getting noticed. For years, the North Carolina legislature backed a pay-as-you-go approach to capital investments on its publicly funded college campuses.

Healthcare facility design and construction is a booming business, Allina Health SystemÔÇÖs Bill Dunham explains to Gary Toushek Allina Hospitals & Clinics is a not-for-profit regional health network headquartered in the Twin Cities and has 11 hospitals and 64 clinics (25 of them within hospitals) throughout eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Bill Dunham, director of facilities design and construction, is in charge of AllinaÔÇÖs facilities planning and construction services.

Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, the major shareholder in steelmaker ArcelorMittal, is considering entering the takeover battle for Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, according to the Financial Times. ┬á┬á Citing unnamed individuals familiar with the matter, the FT said that Mittal was interested in securing larger supplies of iron ore.┬á┬á "Mr Mittal has considered some involvement in the takeover, such as the idea of taking a stake in Rio through buying from existing shareholders," an unnamed banker was quoted as saying.┬á┬á "On the other hand, he could wait until l

Budweiser beer brewer Anheuser-Busch has rejected the $46 billion takeover proposal made by rival InBev two weeks ago, saying the suggested deal was financially inadequate.  ┬á On June 11th the Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev, best known for its Stella Artois brand, made an unsolicited, non-binding proposal to acquire all outstanding shares of Anheuser-Busch for $65 per share.

Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry mobile phone and e-mail device, has doubled its first quarter revenue and earnings, but its shares fell overnight on a weaker than expected second quarter forecast.  ┬á The Waterloo, Ontario company announced earnings of $482.5 million yesterday (84 cents per share) for the three months ended May 31, up from $223.2 million in the same period a year earlier.

Demand for US-made durable goods remained flat in May, with higher orders for airplanes and defense goods offsetting weaker sales of machinery and metals, according to Commerce Department figures released today. ┬á Excluding demand for transportation equipment (which rose 2.6 percent), orders for durable goods fell 0.9 percent, the first drop in three months. Defense orders were up 10.9 percent, but after taking them away, total orders fell 0.6 percent.

Bunge Ltd., a premier producer of fertilizer and soybean-based foods, has agreed to buy Westchester-based Corn Products International in an all stock deal worth $4.4 billion to gain access to its line of starches and sweeteners.  ┬á The sale "provides a unique opportunity for Bunge to establish an integrated, global presence in the corn value chain, which is highly complementary to our existing operations," Bunge Chairman Alberto Weisser said Monday.

Oil prices rose again today, after emergency talks over the weekend between the worldÔÇÖs top oil powers and representatives from the major oil consuming nations failed to reach a concrete resolution.  ┬á The meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was attended by energy ministers from more than 30 countries as well as senior executives from the world's largest oil companies, amid concerns that recent record oil prices are helping tip the US and other major economies towards recession.┬á┬á The US, UK and other major consumers of oil have urged producers to boost supply, blaming

Jason 2, a joint US-French oceanographic monitoring satellite that will be critical to our understanding of climate change, was successfully launched into space last night from California's Vandenberg Air Force base.  ┬á Jason 2 is a high-tech oceanography space lab designed to monitor sea levels and currents. It will take readings with an accuracy of better than four centimeters. Its data will track not only rises in sea levels but also reveal how masses of waters are moving around the globe.