The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 1

rThe 111 WHO IS THE MOST Next Big nn lhing Myere Park tf -aft vjCw 'if Li 9 ra VcSSS1 i ity- tf I 1 li ifeW IF sv it 4 ftysa SM PLAYER? 1 IN BUSINESS -1? ALu WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3 2007 anj (Itaaliry ascttaiEb I know INSIDE Business 1 ID Customers happier with Piedmont gas Piedmont Natural Gas ranked second in a large customer service survey less than two years after making headlines over bad service founder compaouw why the mayor of Concord dislikes racing the way it 31 appears that he does Bruton Smith Motor Speedway owner PtiBiiBBflimetiguirtagrgiagEtiJ Blackwater CEO says critics have rushed to judgment over shooting rqr 3 and there will bean opportunity to work this situation out Concord mayor Nation I 4A Trouble ahead for Iraq funds request President request for $189 billion more for the war in Iraq is running into trouble A top Democrat says Busl1 block a vote un til next year Smith: My way or no speedway Nation I 7A Clinton lures most cash in 3rd quarter Hillary Clinton raised $27 million in the third quarter outpacing all other candidates in both parties By Warren Strobfl McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON Blackwater USA founder Falk Prince defended his company Tuesday from an onslaught by House Democrats who portrayed the defense contractor as an overpaid private army that is harming US interests in the Middle East The normally secretive Piincc whose NC-based company has secured more than $1 billion in federal contracts said Blackwater guards operated properly in a Sept 16 melee in a Baghdad square that left as many as 11 Iraqi civilians dead and ignited an uproar over the use of private military contractors on everything we currently know the Blackwater team acted appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone on Sept Prince said in prepared testimony for a packed healing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been a rush to Iraqi officials say Blackwater guards fired unprovoked on Iraqi vehicles that day killing among others a baby and a mother of eight The committee did not probe the incident at the request of the Justice Department following the announcement Monday that the FBI W'as joining a State Depai tment investigation Rep Carolyn Maloney D-N chastised Prince for response to an incident on Chi lst-mas Fve 2006 in which a drunken employee killed a bodyguard to vice president and was whisked out of Iraq with the State knowledge Prince said the man had been fired and fined But an internal Blackwater e-mail released at the hearing showed that lie merely foi felted bonuses and a SEE BLACKWATER I 4A Pavilion By Sharif Durhams and David Poole sdurhamscharlotteobserver com dpoolecharlotteobserver com CONCORD If Concord want a drag strip Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith said he want anything to do with Concord Smith said Tuesday willing to spend the $350 million it would take to shut down his speedway and build a new oval track and drag strip somewhere else am deadly Smith said am ready IN SPORTS David Poole says Smith Dirt track 29 1C I LOWES MOTOR SPEEDWAY has the means willing and able to do that If I found the land to- LOWES MOTOR SPEEDWAY Sports I 3C NBA coach loses harassment case New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas sexually harassed an employee a jury ruled The owner was ordered to pay the woman ID I to back his day I would have our engineers on the job within a words few The billionaire chairman of Speedway Motor-sports made the threat after the City Council voted Monday to stop him from building a $60 million drag strip in the city He said Concord leaders arc trying to keep him from growing his motorsports business in the city so he may need to move his races elsewhere Smith said he wants to keep a track and other facilities for NASCAR races in the Charlotte area and that looking for land He could tear down or use it as a test track he said threat sent local business recruiters scrambling Tuesday to SEE DRAG STRIP I 16A IN BUSINESS Man buys Rockingham speedway at auction vows race in 2008 $116 million EXTRA $146 MILLION SPENT Report: Federal employees waste millions on flights Also in the News Meet Mecklenburg potential new sheriff i ib It's October so busy hurricane forecast revised i 16A Improper use of business-class travel common in 6 departments audit says STAFF FILE PHOTO F20 ways to save water in the kitchen: IE CONGRESSMAN SPEAKS OUT AT HEARING use of credit scores criticized Find your umbrella Low: 60 High: 81 Increasing clouds this afternoon Isolated showers through evening Storms possible Thursday Forecast 6B By Frig I ip ion New York 1 imes WASHINGTON Federal employees are routmely abusing rules on business-class travel taking trips that cost taxpayers an extra $146 million in one year congressional investigators have found The improper use of piemium-class travel is widespread at six depai tments including Agriculture Commerce State and Treasury according to the Government Accountability Office report which is scheduled to be released today An Agriculture Depai tment official for example spent $62000 on 10 business-class flights to Furopc to attend trade negotiations 'I he coach fare would have been less than $9000 The official Fllen Terpstra who is now' deputy under secretary for farm and foreign agricultural services also wrongly had a subordinate authorize the piemium-class the report says It described Teipstra only as a high-level employee Details in the study were used to determine her identity one disputes that government officials have to said Sen Norman Coleman of Minnesota the ranking Republican on the panel that requested the repoi govei nment is about first-class service It is certainly not about first-class SEE TRAVEL i 6A Watt: Tying rates to financial history unfair Tuesday on whether credit-based insurance scores disproportionately aftect Afi i-can Americans and Hispanics might be equivalent to hav Watt how much automobile insurance ill cost a practice that has some lawmakers crying foul because of evidence that it disproportionately affects some minority groups A Federal Trade Commission report requested by Congress and made public in July found that credit scores effectively predict the frequency of claims made to auto insurance companies is totally unfair even if there is some statistical Rep Mel Watt D-NC of Chailotte said following a hearing Ask Amy 7E Horoscope 7E Business ID Movies 5E Classified IF Obituaries 4B Comics 6E Sports 1C Editorial 14A TV 5E Delivery Assistance or to Subscribe 800-532-5350 tc 2007 The Charlotte Observer Vo I 138 No 276 By Lisa Zagarou McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON Putting the pedal to the metal has always put people at risk of increased car insurance premiums but what about making late credit card payments? Insurers over the past decade have increasingly relied on credit scores to help detciminc ing your diivmg history determine whether you get a bank loan or the intciest rate you will pay on the said Watt chairman of the ovei sight and investigations subcommittee of the House financial SEE WATT I 6A.