Another player in the Bernie Madoff saga has fallen. His longtime auditor, David Friehling, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to charges of securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, making false filings with the SEC, and obstructing or impeding the administration of the Internal Revenue laws (among others).

Despite the plea, Friehling still told U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, "At no time was I ever aware Bernard Madoff was engaged in a Ponzi scheme."

Bernie Madoff is getting used to his new neighbors. Gone are the days of Montauk and Manhattan, and he isn't sharing his space with topless dancers.

Now, he says goodnight to a drug pusher, chills with a former mobster, and hangs with a convicted spy ... and these guys are probably saying, "I hang around with Bernie Madoff." The former financier Ponzi schemer spends his evenings walking laps around the prison track at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex, not far from Raleigh, N.C.

Bernie Madoff, the mastermind behind the world's largest ever Ponzi scheme, arrived at a federal prison in North Carolina to begin serving his 150 year prison sentence.

It will be hard to find anyone sympathetic to the 71 year old investor who will be spending the rest of his life behind bars. We still do not know if Madoff will serve out all of his time at the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, but for now that is where he can call home.

Last night, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced plans to build its first East Coast data center. The facility will be located in North Carolina, which recently enacted tax breaks to lure the popular tech company, but no specific site has yet been selected. Apple is expected to pour more than $1 billion into the project over the next nine years.

Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to say how the data center will be used. In a statement, the tech firm said only, "We're looking forward to building a new data center in North Carolina, and we appreciate the efforts of Gov. Perdue and state lawmakers who helped make it possible." Construction is expected to begin soon.

In other Apple news today, the company is attracting bullish attention from Societe Generale. The brokerage firm started coverage of AAPL with a Buy rating and a $160 price target.

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), like any company, never wastes a chance to reduce its tax footprint in every state it operates in. In North Carolina, though, the world's largest retailer recently had a beef with taxing authorities concerning rent deduction on its tax forms for locations in that state. Problem is, Wal-Mart had to pay about $33.5 million in taxes for rent it paid to its own Wal-Mart real estate units, then pay the taxes, and now, wants a refund.

A court said that it could not have a refund, and a legal beef ensued. Can Wal-Mart really take a deduction for rent on its own stores that have ownership by...Wal-Mart itself (though real estate holding units)? Another day, another tax loophole in corporate America.

The outcome here could set a precedent for other companies that pay rent to real-estate investment trust units that transfer tax-free income to their owners. In this case, the "owner" is Wal-Mart itself. According to The Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart may have saved $230 million in state taxes over the last four years in many U.S. states where is operates store locations.

Historically, North Carolina was well-known for tobacco, furniture production, and textiles. Though the Tar Heel state is still a leading textiles employer, both textiles and furniture production have been diminished by offshoring; North Carolina is one of the states most affected by job loss to other parts of the world. The state also remains a leader in tobacco production, but concerns about the loss of government subsidies have prompted many farmers to switch to other crops or to quit farming altogether.

Today, Charlotte, North Carolina, is known as the second largest financial center in the U.S., and the Raleigh-Durham area is a tech and research district. Carlisle Cos. (NYSE: CSL), Commscope Inc. (NYSE: CTV), and Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) can be found in the state.

The Forbes 2007 list of the 100 best mid cap stocks included two from North Carolina. One of those is Charlotte-based Carlisle, a manufacturer of such diverse products as brakes for heavy-duty trucks, roofing materials, food service equipment, and aerospace cabling assemblies. Carlisle appointed a new CEO in June, and in August it marked its 31st consecutive year of dividend increases. Carlisle's five-year EPS growth rate of 19.4% is better than its industry average, but less than the S&P 500. Earnings missed Wall Street estimates in the first three quarters of 2007, the company reporting 84 cents per share in the recent third quarter report, missing expectations by three cents, but 14 cents more than in the same period last year. The share price began to slide even before Carlisle trimmed its full-year guidance again in October, to open at $39.43 on Friday, down from the 52-week high of $51.57 in August.

CKE Restaurants Inc. (NYSE:CKR) had little choice but to say goodbye to the original Hardee's franchise in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

The location, which was opened in 1961, was shut more than a decade ago. Birds flew out of the interior roof when it was demolished, according to the Rocky Mount Telegram. It's going to be remade into a park. The whole area around the restaurant is part of an urban renewal project, according to Peter Varney, an assistant city manager.

"It's an area that's coming back to life," Varney told me in an interview.

There was some talk about converting the restaurant into a museum of some sort, but that never got anywhere. Interestingly, Hardee's is cutting its ties with the past less than one month after Wendy's International Inc. (NYSE:WEN) shut its original location too.

Change in this case is a good thing.

Businesses both large and small can't afford to be sentimental. Demolishing the first Hardee's franchise is both in the best interest of CKE and the city of Rocky Mount.