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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/jgHd8.St.138.jpeg|525FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2012 file photo, dark clouds from a passing thunderstorm hang over a dry cornfield in Blair, Neb. In 2012, the nation suffered its worst drought since the 1950s, covering 80 percent of U.S. farmland. Grain and food prices soared. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/z0rYV.St.138.jpeg|416FILE - In this July 26, 2011 file photo, Austin Mitchell, left, and Ryan Lehto work on an oil derrick outside of Williston, N.D. In 2012, domestic crude oil production achieved its biggest one-year gain since 1951, driven by output in North Dakota and Texas. The United States is on pace to pass Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer within two years. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/umdL8.St.138.jpeg|417The National Transportation Safety Board conducts an initial aircraft layout examination of the wreckage of a Lancair experimental aircraft that crashed on Friday, inside a hangar at the Boise Airport on Saturday Feb. 4, 2012, in Boise, Idaho. The crash killed both the pilot and Micron CEO Steve Appleton. Appleton, who had a reputation as a hard-driving daredevil, was known for takings risks in stunt piloting and he survived a similar crash eight years earlier. Micron colleagues said that same energy and drive helped establish the Idaho company's place on the world stage as one of the leaders in memory-chip production. (AP Photo/The Idaho Statesman, Joe Jaszewski, Pool) MANDATORY CREDIT
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/rOVX1.St.138.jpeg|423FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama acknowledges House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio while speaking to reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. A dreaded package of tax increases and deep spending cuts to domestic and defense programs loomed over the economy in 2012 as Congress and the White House negotiated the budgetary steps needed to avoid it. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/X5dGi.St.138.jpeg|435FILE - In this May 18, 2012 file photo provided by Facebook, Facebook founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, center, rings the Nasdaq opening bell from Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Years of anticipation led to Facebook's initial public offering of stock in 2012, the hottest Internet IPO since Google’s in 2004. Many of the 1 billion-plus users of the world’s largest online social network craved a chance to buy in early. On the eve of its first trading day, Facebook’s market value was $105 billion, yet the IPO bombed. (AP Photo/Nasdaq via Facebook, Zef Nikolla, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/12UI34.St.138.jpeg|404FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012 file photo, a protester wears glasses with the euro and dollar symbols painted on the lenses before protesting the conservative government's handling of the economic crisis and to demand fresh elections, in Madrid. Many had hoped that 2012 would be the year when the global economy finally regained its vigor, but the three largest economies: The United States, China and Japan struggled, while the 17 countries that use euro endured a third painful year in their financial crisis and slid into recession, and emerging economies slowed. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/To3PJ.St.138.jpeg|413FILE - In this Thursday, June 28, 2012 file photo, Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., center, holds up a copy of the Supreme Court's health care ruling during a news conference by the GOP Doctors Caucus on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Supreme Court caught many by surprise when it backed the Obama administrationís health care reform in June 2012. The law requires Americans to buy insurance or pay a tax, while subsidizing the needy. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/1tnxe2.St.138.jpeg|381FILE - In this May 16, 2012 file photo, construction workers wrap a home in protective sheeting as they frame a new home in Chester, Va. After a six-year slump that sent more than 4 million homes into foreclosure and shrank home prices about one-third nationwide, the U.S. housing market began to recover in 2012. Modest job gains and record-low mortgage rates fueled demand. (AP Photo/Steve Helbe, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/tOrKx.St.138.jpeg|416FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012 file photo, people examine the iPad Mini in San Jose, Calif. Competition in mobile technology intensified in 2012 as Apple maintained worldwide dominance. But the use of Google’s Android software on competing smartphones and tablets spread faster than Apple’s market share. Forty-four percent of U.S. adults own smartphones, up from about 35 percent in 2011. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/2kGux.St.138.jpeg|416FILE - In this May 12, 21012 file photo, protesters pack the Puerta del Sol plaza in central Madrid. Worldwide growth was slack again in 2012. The global economy grew just 3.3 percent, down from 3.8 percent in 2011 and 5.1 percent in 2010, the International Monetary Fund estimates. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/1pXs6q.St.138.jpeg|416FILE - In this Nov. 1, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event at Cheyenne Sports Complex in Las Vegas. In 2012, Obama vaulted to a re-election victory over Mitt Romney, who had staked his bid on the weakest U.S. economic rebound since the Great Depression and had pledged to slash taxes. Yet Obama won despite the highest unemployment rate of any president seeking re-election since World War II. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/yzW4f.St.138.jpeg|371FILE - In this June 13, 2012 file photo, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, head of the largest bank in the United States, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the Senate Banking Committee about how his company recently lost more than $2 billion on risky trades. Throughout 2012, banks faced scrutiny as drama ensued. JPMorgan Chase lost $6 billion in a complex series of trades. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/DLyUE.St.138.jpeg|377In this June 1, 2012 file photo, store manager Todd Young smiles as he restocks tequila at a Costco warehouse store, in Seattle. Private retailers begin selling spirits for the first time under a voter-approved initiative kicking the state out of the liquor business. Liquor privatization was was voted among the state's top news stories of 2012 by Associated Press member editors. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
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http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2012/12/28/16/32/1aNXu0.St.138.jpeg|525FILE - In this Dec. 12, 1999 file photo, Micron Technology Inc. CEO Steve Appleton is photographed in 1999 at the company's Boise. Idaho headquarters. Appleton, the chief operating officer and chairman of Micron, has died in a small plane crash in Boise. He was 51. The crash killed both the pilot and Micron CEO Steve Appleton. Appleton, who had a reputation as a hard-driving daredevil, was known for takings risks in stunt piloting and he survived a similar crash eight years earlier. Micron colleagues said that same energy and drive helped establish the Idaho company's place on the world stage as one of the leaders in memory-chip production. (AP Photo/Idaho Statesman, Chris Butler, File)
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