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ACC: Fair, Football Traffic Problems Inevitable
Expansion Means Game During State FairHeels earn better grades
UNC's graduation rates rise for football, but N.C. State football and Duke basketball rates fall mainly because of transfersScoring Social Security
Michael Walden
Hendrick
has had ups, downs
Despite his success, automotive mogul has faced cancer, legal problems before
latest tragedy
Jackie's
Ghost [part two]
Creative Writing Program
Theaters get more from ads
On-screen advertising revenue increases about one-third from 2002 to
'03
20
new Tucson-area routes coming
Institute of Transportation Research
Vegetable
and Fruit Expo planned for Nov. 30-Dec. 2
Agriculture
A Symposium
On Equity and Race in a
Democratic Society
Robert Entman
Students
across nation try to crash PBR frat's party
Members of OSU's Phi Beta Rho are fielding inquiries about how they successfully
landed Pabst Blue Ribbon beer as a sponsor
In
His Rapid Rise, Edwards Carries A Common Touch
Alumni, John Edwards
ACC: Fair, Football Traffic Problems Inevitable
Oct. 26, 2004
News & Observer, NBC-17, The Associated Press, News-14, The Charlotte Observer, Wilmington Morning Star
By staff reporter
© Copyright 2004
Expansion Means Game During State Fair
RALEIGH, N.C. -- If you like the State Fair, or N.C. State football, just get accustomed to an annual traffic nightmare.
The Atlantic Coast Conference said Monday that additional teams in the league means the football schedule will include one game during the fair, which stretches over two weekends each October.
Fairgoers and football fans, and some motorists who weren't headed to either venue, spent hours sitting in traffic on Saturday. This year, the fair coincided with the sold-out N.C. State-Miami game, which drew 55,600 fans.
Once Boston College begins ACC play next fall, league officials will have to coordinate the home schedules of N.C. State and 11 other conference teams.
"With N.C. State, we can honor having one weekend off during the fair," said ACC assistant commissioner Mike Finn, who oversees football scheduling for the league. "But we can't promise two weekends."
The fair, which is run by the state Agriculture Department, reported a Saturday attendance figure of 119,461 people. Fair officials said it amounted to about 10,000 fewer people than on the second Saturday of last year's fair, when the Wolfpack played at Duke and the stadium was empty.
Last month, Agriculture Commissioner Britt Cobb wrote ACC commissioner John Swofford to ask him to avoid scheduling future home games during the 10-day fair.
State's home schedule didn't overlap with the State Fair last year. The Wolfpack had a Thursday night home game before the 2003 fair opened and played at Duke the next weekend.
Despite the problems last weekend, the scene has been more complicated.
During the 2002 fair, N.C. State hosted Duke in an early afternoon game. That night as the football crowd left, hockey fans headed to the RBC Center for a Saturday night Carolina Hurricanes game.
Wolfpack senior associate athletics director said he can remember past years when coaches got stuck in traffic. They ended up parking on the shoulder and jogging to get to the game on time.
"It's been something we've been dealing with for 40 years here," Horning said.
Oct. 26, 2004
News and Observer
By Brent Winter
© Copyright 2004
For a copy of this article, contact News Services at 515-3470
Oct. 26, 2004
News & Observer
By LUCIANA CHAVEZ
© Copyright 2004
The NCAA released its 2004 report on graduation rates on Monday, and the news was better for North Carolina football, worse for N.C. State football and just plain odd for Duke basketball.
According to the NCAA report, the UNC football program improved significantly. Sixty-seven percent of the scholarship players who arrived in 1997-98 graduated, compared with 35 percent of the 1996-97 incoming class.
The N.C. State football program went in the opposite direction, with a 35 percent graduation rate for the 1997-98 players, down from 44 percent.
Duke's basketball program took a hit for the class entering 1997-98, with just 25 percent of the players graduating.
Looking at all Division I athletes, they graduated at a higher rate (62 percent) than the general student population (60 percent). They're given six years to graduate.
NCAA President Myles Brand described that outcome as a "major result" and "good news."
At UNC, faculty athletics representative John Evans said the school was happy to see improvement, although UNC officials considered the previous dip an aberration caused by athletes who transferred to other schools or turned professional early and some changes on the academic support staff.
"That 1996-97 class was generally not what we would have for our [football program]," Evans said. "We're pleased with the improvement in the football numbers and the [6]-point increase in the [total student-athlete] graduation level for that class. That's the kind of thing we like to see."
Head football coach Chuck Amato addressed the N.C. State drop by emphasizing: "They were all guys I did not recruit. This is my fifth year. How else can I address it? That's the truth."
Of the three schools, N.C. State probably was hurt most by the fact that the NCAA report counts athletes who transferred to other schools as people who didn't graduate. Five of the 20 football players in that NCSU class transferred.
Philip Moses, director of N.C. State's academic program for student-athletes, said that in his 10 years at State, the class entering in 1997-98 "jumps out as the most out of the ordinary."
Of 88 athletes who came to N.C. State that fall, 43 graduated, while 19 transferred in good academic standing.
"That's probably hurting us more than anything," athletics director Lee Fowler said of the number of transfers, adding that State is trying to reduce that number by meeting with all athletes who are considering transferring before they make a decision.
Duke's basketball program suffered like State's football program because the basketball class that arrived in 1997-98 included Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, William Avery and Chris Burgess.
The first three left school after the 1998-99 season to enter the NBA, and Burgess transferred to Utah that year. All four counted as non-graduates in the report.
In contrast, 100 percent of the Duke football class that entered in 1997-98 graduated.
"We do understand why, and that will throw off our four-year numbers for a while," said Chris Kennedy, Duke's senior associate athletics director. "We're still doing the same things we've always done. But this is a new thing being introduced to us that [basketball players] are going to be leaving early."
Kennedy said Duke is still adjusting to changes in the sport and the NCAA by encouraging athletes to use summer school to complete their requirements faster. Although former Duke star Jay Williams left school after his third year to turn pro, he graduated in the spring of 2002.
For years, NCAA coaches have complained that counting transfers as non-graduates skews the rates. Along with the new academic requirements that went into effect this year, the NCAA will start using a new way to track graduation rates. A transfer will affect only the rate of the school to which he transfers.
But Todd Petr, the NCAA's managing director of research, doesn't think that will cause a huge swing in graduation rates.
"I think generally speaking those schools at the highest level will remain there since they are less affected by transfers in and out," Petr said. "Those urban institutions that see a lot of transfer behavior are more likely to be affected by the change in [calculating] graduation success rates."
Beginning next fall, the NCAA will release both federal graduation rates, which count transfers against the original school, and its own graduation success rates.
"[Our way] gives a much more accurate picture of what's going on," Brand said. "I hope we continue to compare the two lists."
With the NCAA's new academic standards, which require faster progress toward graduation, keeping athletes eligible becomes more difficult. But N.C. State's Fowler said the new requirements are already working.
"Believe it or not, since the NCAA has established tougher requirements, the kids have been doing better earlier," Fowler said. "It seems to have helped. The main thing is we have to [cut down] on transfers."
Although Brand believes schools and programs can improve, he said Division I athletes are already operating at a high level overall.
"I am happy we maintained that level because it is a high level when you're measuring against the general [student] population," Brand said. "You won't see a double-digit increase [in the future]. That's implausible, but a 1- or 2-point raise affects a lot of people. I do think there is room for improvement."
Staff writer Luciana Chavez can be reached at 829-4864 or lchavez@newsobserver.com.
GRADUATION RATES
Here are the graduation rates reported in 2003 and 2004 for the area ACC schools. The 2003 report tracks the class that entered in 1996-97. The 2004 report looks at the 1997-98 class. The 2004 report can be viewed by going to www.ncaa.org/grad_rates.
2003 2004
DUKE
men's basketball ** 25%
football 83% 100%
all student-athletes 88% 94%
all students 93% 94%
NORTH CAROLINA
men's basketball ** 75%
football 35% 67%
all student-athletes 64% 70%
all students 80% 83%
N.C. STATE
men's basketball 75% 67%
football 44% 35%
all student-athletes 64% 49%
all students 64% 63%
WAKE FOREST
men's basketball ** 50%
football 86% 94%
all student-athletes 79% 73%
all students 87% 87%
NCAA DIVISION I
men's basketball 44% 44%
football 54% 55%
all student-athletes 62% 62%
all students 59% 60%
**Data suppressed because low number of athletes involved might lead to their identification.
(NCAA)
Oct. 26, 2004
News and Observer
By Michael Walden
© Copyright 2004
For a copy if this column, contact News Services at 515-3470.
Oct. 26, 2004
News & Observer
By LUKE DECOCK
© Copyright 2004
Rick Hendrick's personal
successes and those of his auto-racing teams have often been tempered by
adversity, but the Warrenton native has never been hit so close or so hard.
His son, Ricky, and brother, John, were among 10 people killed in Sunday's
crash of a Hendrick Motorsports plane on its way to a NASCAR race in Martinsville,
Va. The race was won by Jimmie Johnson, one of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers.
Two of John Hendrick's daughters and the team's longtime engine builder were also killed.
"Losing a son and a brother, two nieces and so many valuable friends and associates, it's going to be extremely tough to deal with," said Eugene Smith, who has been general manager of Rick Hendrick Chevrolet in Durham for seven years. "Rick and his wife, Linda, they're strong people, strong-willed, with strong faith. If anybody can handle it, they can. It's just a terrible thing to heap on any one family."
Hendrick pioneered the "mega-dealer" concept with his sprawling, nationwide complexes of auto dealerships. And 20 years ago, he founded what would become one of the most successful racing teams in NASCAR history. He was the model for Randy Quaid's character in the Tom Cruise movie "Days of Thunder" and an integral part of George Shinn's effort to bring the National Basketball Association to Charlotte in the late 1980s.
But that success hasn't come easy. Hendrick was diagnosed with leukemia in 1996. At the same time, Hendrick was facing prison time for a bribery scandal involving Honda's American subsidiary.
Hendrick pleaded guilty to mail fraud in 1997, was fined $250,000 and sentenced to three years' probation and a year of house arrest. Hendrick was also banned from NASCAR for a year, turning the operations over to John Hendrick. Hendrick was pardoned by President Clinton in 2000. John Hendrick was fined and performed community service as a result of the same investigation.
Just this summer, their father, "Papa Joe" Hendrick, died of lung cancer.
"[Hendrick] has had more than his share of trips up and down the emotional ladder," said Max Muhleman, a Charlotte marketing consultant who helped Hendrick build his NASCAR dynasty.
Hendrick, who was born in Warren County and grew up near South Hill, Va., got his start in the auto industry pumping gas at Brentwood Citgo on Capital Boulevard in North Raleigh. He left his engineering studies at N.C. State to sell used cars for Raleigh dealer Michael Leith, where he quickly developed a reputation as a consummate salesman. Hendrick was 27 when he bought his first dealership, in Bennettsville, S.C.
"We were surprised by his age, but his personality made him," said Linda Bottoms, who joined the dealership in 1976, just before Hendrick bought it. "I'll tell you one thing: The business really increased. He was very likeable."
Hendrick moved on to City Chevrolet in Charlotte after about 18 months. Today, his auto empire employs 4,700 people in nine states, the largest privately owned dealership network in the country. Among his 61 dealerships selling 20 different makes are a Chevrolet lot in Durham, four dealerships in the Cary Auto Mall and five off U.S. 15-501 in Chapel Hill. There are also Hendrick Collision Centers in Durham and Apex.
He once described his business methods to Business Week as "like McDonald's," expanding his reach by purchasing dealerships and installing standardized controls and programs. At the same time, he also grants general managers a large degree of autonomy.
"Rick has extraordinary people skills and genuineness," Muhleman said. "People see this is a person I can trust and believe in, and not only people who work for him but people who have been customers and partners of his."
His racing team has been just as successful. He started in 1984 with one driver and a rented warehouse. Hendrick driver Geoff Bodine won in only the team's eighth start.
Now, 127 NASCAR wins later, Hendrick Motorsports' 460 employees work out of a 130-acre compound in Concord just down the road from Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Hendrick created the multi-car model that prevails among NASCAR teams today, and his drivers this season include Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers. They have won 11 races this season.
Hendrick Motorsports won an unprecedented four straight titles in NASCAR's top series from 1995 to 1998, and Gordon is second in this year's points race with only a handful of races left.
"I feel like I'm almost a consultant," Hendrick said in a June 2003 interview with NASCAR.com. "I stand back and watch, and then I ask a lot of questions. If I see areas we're weak in, I try to fix those. If I can keep everybody here on the same page, working together, we've got enough talent here that we should be able to do real well."
Hendrick himself would normally have been on Sunday's flight to the race, but begged off because he wasn't feeling well.
Ricky Hendrick, who retired from racing in 2002 after a crash, was being groomed to run the entire company. When Hendrick Motorsports was building its new complex in Concord, the father joked about the long-term impact on his family in the 2003 interview with NASCAR.com.
"It's a big commitment for us," Hendrick said. "I told Ricky I'm signing a lot of notes. He's going to have to work a lot of years."
Staff writer Luke DeCock can be reached at 829-8947 or ldecock@newsobserver.com.
Oct. 26, 2004
News and Observer
By Brent Winter
© Copyright 2004
For a copy of this article, contact News Services at 515-3470
Oct. 26, 2004
News & Observer
By DAVID RANII
© Copyright 2004
Angela M. Davis, who goes
to the movies two or three times a month, likes the commercials that theaters
show before the film.
" I'm the one at the theater who is cracking jokes, talking through the
commercials," said Davis, 24, a sales associate at the Hallmark Cards store
at Crabtree Valley Mall. "That's my time to get it out of my system before
the movie starts."
Although ads in theaters are a target for critics who long for the days when they could go to the movies to escape commercials, theater owners -- and advertisers -- are betting that Davis' laissez-faire attitude will prevail. Commercials are growing as fast as Hollywood sequels.
The number of movie screens showing ads is up 40 percent in the past five years, according to UniqueScreen Media, a Minnesota company that sells and distributes commercials for theaters. Today about two-thirds of the nation's more than 36,000 screens show some type of advertising.
Last year, advertisers including Coca-Cola, Nike and Mars spent $304.7 million to have their ads shown on movie screens, and the number is up 34 percent from 2002, according to the Cinema Advertising Council. Advertising in theater lobbies -- everything from posters to plastering a brand on soda cups -- rose 58 percent to $51.4 million.
Those numbers amount to little more than a few kernels of popcorn compared with the industry's jumbo-sized box office revenues of $9.49 billion in 2003. But the ads have high profit margins, said Dennis McAlpine, a media and entertainment industry analyst with McAlpine & Associates.
And the commercials are popular with advertisers, industry executives say, because moviegoers tend to be relatively young, affluent and well-educated. "That's the trifecta that advertisers look for," said Bob Brouillette, senior vice president of sales at National Cinema Network, a cinema advertising company in Kansas City, Mo.
Then there's the undeniable glitz factor of having a product splashed on a giant screen and touted over giant speakers. "From a sensory standpoint, it's phenomenal," Brouillette said.
On-screen commercials fall into two categories -- before and after. The first -- both slides and full-motion video -- are projected before the lights go down and before the scheduled show time. The second, known as "rolling stock," are ads shown just before the previews when the theater is dark, after the advertised start time for the movie.
Some theater chains show both. Others limit themselves to pre-showtime ads, such as the Marquee Cinemas chain that plans to open multiplexes at the redeveloped North Hills on Six Forks Road in Raleigh and at Wakefield Commons near Wake Forest before the end of the year.
Bill Peebles, whose Raleigh-based Ambassador Entertainment runs a string of local theaters, only shows ads at two: the Colony in Raleigh and the Lumina in Chapel Hill. He isn't opposed to expanding to other theaters, but he draws the line at showing ads after the advertised show time.
"Patrons are paying me to entertain them," said Peebles. "I don't think I should show commercials" after show time rolls around.
Some moviegoers also draw a distinction between the acceptability of before and after commercials. Justin T. Hammond, 22 and a student at N.C. State University, said he's OK with pre-showtime ads but gets impatient once the lights dim.
"I don't think you should have to pay to see commercials," Hammond said. But he also sees an advantage. "The only good thing about them is they delay the start of the movie -- in case I'm running late."
Movie theater commercials can arouse strong passions. Last year a lawsuit seeking class-action status accused the Loews Cineplex Entertainment Group of deceiving movie-goers by showing commercials beyond the film's advertised starting time. The lawsuit was thrown out of a Chicago court but is being appealed, said Mark Weinberg, one of the lawyers handling the suit.
Web sites, including www.didntialreadypayforthismovie.com and www.captiveaudience.org, have sprouted on the Internet to protest the increase. "It now seems the only difference between a movie screen and a TV screen is size," the latter site complains.
Walt Disney Studios doesn't permit commercials to be shown before its Disney-branded movies after the lights dim, although it has no such restriction for its other movie divisions, such as Touchstone Pictures.
Disney spokeswoman Heidi Trotta said the distinction is that Disney-branded films are family movies. "We believe there should be a place where families can go without being barraged with advertising," she said.
But the theater industry is fond of pointing to surveys, such as one by Arbitron, a media research firm, that a majority of patrons don't mind commercials.
The industry also justifies advertising in economic terms. "We mainly do advertising to offset admission costs," said Carmike Cinemas spokeswoman Judy Russell, which shows ads both before and after showtime.
Cliff Marks, president of marketing and sales for the Regal Entertainment Group division that handles advertising, noted that a few years ago the theater industry was awash in bankruptcies -- including Regal's.
If the industry relied solely on revenue from admissions and concessions, Marks said, customers' "movie experience wouldn't be quite as good. "The revenue we bring in helps us keep nice, new, clean theaters."
Regal, the No. 1 theater chain, shows a 20-minute advertising-and-entertainment package called "The 2wenty" before the scheduled showtime at its theaters, including the Garner Towne Square 10. Regal invested $70 million to install digital projectors to show "The 2wenty," which is beamed to theaters via satellite, Marks said.
Ads increasingly make their debut on the big screen, Marks said.
Keeping ads fresh is important to Michelle Schaefer, 27, a marketing executive who lives in Durham. She doesn't object to movie theaters showing commercials in moderation, but she gets tired of seeing the same ads again and again.
"There are some commercials my husband and I have said, out of frustration, 'If I see that one more time, I'm not coming back,'" she said.
Staff writer David Ranii can be reached at 829-4877 or davidr@newsobserver.com.
New ideas transform views on aging
Oct. 26, 2004
South Bend Tribune, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant
By KORKY VANN
© Copyright 2004
Members of the baby-boom generation, who benefited from Dr. Spock in their childhood and Dr. Lamaze in their childbearing years, have a new physician activist to help transform their old age. Dr. William Thomas, a self-described "radical geriatrician," says boomers soon will be gearing up for a revolution to change society one more time.
"Creating a new old age will be the boomers' last act on the public stage," says Thomas, who has outlined his pro-aging manifesto in a provocative new book, "What Are Old People For? How Elders Will Save the World," published this month by VanderWyk & Burnham. "We're preparing for a revolution that will transform old age and the lives of elders the world over."
The first step, according to Thomas, is to end the American tendency of equating being old with being sick. Seeing old age solely in terms of disease and disability and condoning ageism damages all of society, especially the elderly. Instead, old age should be seen as a natural, developmental stage of life, rather than a difficult decline.
Research supports his claims. Two recent studies show individuals age better when they are happy and free of negative images of aging. In the first study, researchers at the University of Texas found a link between positive emotions and the delay of the onset of frailty. In the second study, researchers from North Carolina State University investigated how negative stereotypes about aging influence older adults' memory. Results showed memory performance in older adults was lower when they were presented with negative stereotypes than when they were given positive images of aging.
"The anti-aging business wants the public to think of wrinkles and other natural signs of aging as a disease," Thomas says. "They spend hundreds of millions of dollars to sow fear and reap a rich financial harvest. Currently, older adults only have value as long as they appear or act 'young.' It's time to change that."
Thomas, who graduated from Harvard Medical School, didn't set out to develop a radical philosophy on the process of aging. He originally planned to specialize in emergency room medicine until a job in a nursing home changed his mind.
"It was the most energizing and meaningful work I'd ever done," Thomas says.
But the insider's view of a long-term care facility made him wonder if there was a better solution to living arrangements for elders who no longer could remain in their own homes. Predetermined schedules and routines, he found, had a deadening effect on both residents and staff. With few spontaneous events and little social stimulation, patients often became withdrawn and depressed.
"Spontaneous events and happenings are the source of interesting conversation. Conversations grow into stories that can be told and retold. Stories become memories," Thomas says. "To live in a typical nursing home is to endure a famine of new memories."
In 1992, Thomas and his wife, Judith, introduced The Eden Alternative, a philosophy known for encouraging the presence of nature, pets and children in nursing homes and adapted by a number of long-term care facilities across the country. In 2000, they started developing a plan for a new model of long-term care called "intentional communities," housing as many as 10 elders who choose to live together with the help of several younger adults and strive to become a new community with a shared goal. Prototypes of these communities, called Green Houses, exist in a number of locations, including Tupelo, where United Senior Services of Mississippi built the first four Green Houses and relocated 40 residents from a traditional nursing home facility.
"Baby boomers are not going to accept living out their lives in 'old age archipelagoes,' " says Thomas, who has won a number of awards for his work. "They're the ideal generation to create this new model. With a higher level of education than any previous generation, a higher level of wealth and the well-established habit of reinventing social norms, I just don't see boomers accepting the fate of a nursing home."
In Thomas' vision, which he calls "Eldertopia," Green Houses will be mainstreamed into intergenerational residential neighborhoods where elders can maintain their status as part of the community and share their wisdom and legacy with others.
20 new Tucson-area routes coming
Oct. 26, 2004
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
By Tim Ellis
© Copyright 2004
Work on more than 20 new
Tucson-area bicycle routes is under way or about to begin, just as cooler
weather signals the start of Southern Arizona's prime bicycling season.
While some of the projects will be ready for riders soon, most will be completed
over the next two years. The work will add more than 40 miles to the 512-mile
network of bike routes, bike lanes and shared-use paths used by bicyclists,
pedestrians and others.
The projects will connect several parts of the city's network, and extend
it outward from the city as Marana, Oro Valley and Sahuarita add to the system.
"
There's a ton of work going on right now," said Matt Zoll, Pima County's
bicycle and pedestrian program manager. "It's pretty exciting."
The work is especially good news for bicyclists who long have asked for greater "connectivity" -
linking more of the Tucson-area bicycle-route network. That would allow for
longer recreational rides and also greater opportunity for residents to use
bikes for commuting and other everyday purposes, local cycling advocates
say.
"
The city wants to help people realize the bicycle can be used as a main means
of transportation," said Jim Glock, director of the city's Transportation
Department.
Glock, an avid bicyclist, said there are many benefits to a greater use of
bicycles - including less street congestion and less emissions, which means
improved air quality.
A price tag for the projects was not available, as the work is being done
along with street-improvement projects such as road widenings and resurfacings.
The city and county projects are being funded with federal money. Other area
projects rely on different sources.
But Zoll said the new facilities will benefit more than just the cycling
public. He said a study generated by the Institute for Transportation
Research and Education at North Carolina State University, for example, shows an investment
into such projects can result in economic benefits, such as increased tourism,
that enable a city or town to reap an economic yield nine times as great
as the initial investment.
One local bicyclist also says new bike paths would make her - and probably
other bicyclists - feel more comfortable about using their bicycles more
often.
Kay Sather, a graphic designer and writer, stopped riding in 1994, after
a collision with a vehicle left her with a broken left leg and nagging knee
pain. She resumed riding, but stopped again earlier this year, after two
harrowing incidents.
In the first, a car came within inches of her while she was riding in a bike
lane on a busy street - close enough for an occupant to reach out and spank
her backside. In the second, she was riding on a side street at night - with
the required bike lights - when an oncoming vehicle swerved into the bike
lane, coming directly at her. Luckily, there was break in the curb, and she
bolted into a driveway.
"
I quit bicycling for a while," she said. "Then, a couple of weeks
ago, when the weather started getting real nice, I decided: 'This is ridiculous.
I need to ride my bike again.' "
More bike paths and lanes likely will encourage some to ride more, especially
beginning to intermediate bicyclists, Zoll said. But it's essential to continue
emphasizing education for motorists and cyclists, he said.
Several recent, deadly vehicle-versus-bicycle collisions - one killed and
two hurt in two wrecks earlier this month - show there's more work to be
done, Zoll said.
He said that officials with the League of American Cyclists noted a "noticeably
high fatality rate" for Tucson, but awarded the city a silver-level
Bicycle Friendly Community award, a ranking exceeded by only four other U.S.
cities.
Statewide, Arizona is a less- dangerous place for bicyclists than in 1999,
when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ranked it the second-
most-dangerous state for bicyclists, behind only Florida, based on a formula
that compares the number of bicyclists killed in collisions with the size
of the state's population. Those collisions killed 16 Arizona bicyclists
last year, compared with 23 in 1999.
According to the agency's 2003 figures, Arizona now ranks as the ninth-most-dangerous
state for bicyclists.
Another longtime area cyclist, Roy Schoonover, 75, acknowledges the possibility
a cyclist may be injured, but there's a certainty bicycling will improve
health. He began to appreciate the benefits of riding bikes while still working
at IBM.
"
I've bicycled all my life," he said. "It's just an ideal way to
go. You've got time to think, to strategize, and figure out what you need
to do that day, where you need to go."
Work is about to get under way on the biggest of several bicycle-route projects
in the Tucson area - the Brad P. Gorman Memorial Bikeway, a 5.5-mile route
to be built on a stretch of the Catalina Highway from Soldier Trail to Houghton
Road.
Zoll said the bikeway, named for a bicyclist killed in the area by a motorist
in September 1999, long has been awaited by cyclists because it will allow
them to ride from Downtown to the Catalina Highway all in designated bike
lanes.
"
That's a very, very important one," he said.
Other projects expected to get going in the next two years include 2.25 miles
of new bike lane along a stretch of Broadway and a 2.9-mile stretch of East
River Road that's part of a county project to widen River and connect it
with a new portion of North Alvernon Way.
Other projects in communities around Tucson include a 5.5-mile bike lane
along Tangerine Road in Marana, a two-mile bike lane on a stretch of La Cañada
in Oro Valley and a five-mile bike lane on a stretch of Sahuarita Road in
Sahuarita.
Contact reporter Tim Ellis at 573-4176 or tellis@azstarnet.com.
Vegetable and Fruit Expo planned for Nov. 30-Dec. 3
Oct. 26, 2004
Southeast Farm Press
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
The 19th annual Southeast Vegetable and Fruit Expo is slated in conjunction with the 23rd Eastern North Carolina Vegetable School Nov. 30-Dec. 2 at the Greenville Convention Center in Greenville, N.C.
The conference includes topics such as tomatoes, sweet potatoes, food safety, melons, greenhouses, peppers, methyl bromide alternative, sustainable production, labor issues and speciality crops.
A three-day trade show is held throughout the conference, allowing those involved in agriculture to learn about useful products and services as well as network with potential business contacts.
The Southeast Vegetable and Fruit Expo and the Eastern North Carolina Vegetable School is sponsored by the North Carolina Vegetable Growers Association in cooperation with Clemson University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, North Carolina Division of Energy, North Carolina Farm Bureau, North Carolina Pickle Producers Association, North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission.
For more information, or to register, contact Bonnie Holloman or Cathy Price at the North Carolina Vegetable Growers Association at 919-334-0099 or email: bhollom@bellsouth.net.
A Symposium On Equity and Race in a Democratic Society
Oct. 26, 2004
University of Pennsylvania Almanac
By staff reporter
© Copyright 2004
Five decades after the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education court decision and four decades after the signing of the Civil Rights Act, the nation continues to revisit the social problems underscored in these efforts, the inequality within communities and schools, and the inequities in private and public institutions serving minority and poor children and families.
On October 28-29, GSE will convene Equity and Race in a Democratic Society, a symposium that will focus on these persistent issues.
President Amy Gutmann will introduce the public panel session Representations of Race in the Media, on October 28, at 5 p.m. in the Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall. Featured speakers in this session will be GSE Dean Susan Fuhrman, Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication Michael Delli Carpini, NBC Dateline Producer Aretha Marshall, Annenberg Professor Oscar Gandy, Princeton University Professor of Politics Martin Gilens, and North Carolina State Professor of Communications Robert Entman.
In two days of panel discussions and informal conversations, participants will share their experience in creating and managing K-12 schools and explore the questions that face universities as they work with their community to create successful public schools.
Other highlights of the event include: The (In)Significance of Race in a Post-Brown, Post-Civil Rights Era, a panel discussion featuring Avalon Foundation Professor of the Humanities Michael Eric Dyson, Professor of Sociology Tukufu Zuberi, and GSE Associate Professor Vivian Gadsden.
Among the other topics addressed will be access and opportunity in higher education, the persistence of the achievement gap, schooling and school reform, and race, equity and religion. Information is available at www.gse.upenn.edu/brown.
Students across nation try to crash PBR frat's party
Oct. 26, 2004
The Oregonean
By RON SOBLE
© Copyright 2004
CORVALLIS -- It's no coincidence that the newest fraternity at Oregon State University is Pi Beta Rho -- PBR for short.
And it's also probably no surprise that college students from across the country hope to tap into the OSU beer action.
Ever since the campus newspaper ran a story last week on the brewer-supported fraternity, the PBR Boys, as they're known around here, have gotten a flood of questions about how they convinced Pabst to sign on to their beer-fueled brainstorm.
"I'm overwhelmed," said junior Joel Van Dyke, 21, of Forest Grove, a fish and wildlife major. "I didn't think it would catch on this big."
He and his five cohorts have gotten e-mails from students at Washington State, MIT, Purdue, North Carolina State and the University of Michigan's rugby team, among others, asking how they can start their own PBR chapter.
"They think it's really cool we did this," said junior Paul Koehnke, 21, of Hillsboro, an agricultural business major.
But the frat brothers drew the line at an inquiry from rival University of Oregon students.
"I'm a Beaver before I'm a Pabst," said Van Dyke, attired in a blue-and-red Pabst baseball cap and dark blue sweatshirt with Pi Beta Rho in red letters across his chest.
Pabst has given the unaffiliated fraternity a list of goodies, including signs, T-shirts and even a dartboard. They're all in evidence at the off-campus PBR House, a six-bedroom, faded blue clapboard home where the roommates live. On the fireplace mantel, the students have lined up about five dozen PBR bottles in two rows.
But Pabst is supplying no free beer -- that's not part of the deal and wasn't the motivation anyway, Van Dyke said. "We just wanted to decorate the house," he said.
The buddies, all at least 21, contacted Pabst about their idea via telephone and e-mail after finals last spring and won the approval of Pabst marketing gurus for what they think is the first beer brand-backing of a student group.
"It's the only one we're aware of," said Neal Stewart, senior brand manager at Pabst Brewing Co.'s San Antonio headquarters. "These are a group of guys who have adopted the brand. Like any subculture -- bike messengers, a New York underground film festival -- we support their lifestyles."
The 160-year-old beer brand with the red, white and blue label does no major advertising and so relies on creating a buzz with promotions such as these. Pabst no longer owns a brewery but pays other brewers to produce the beer.
After a long period of declining consumption, the blue-collar beer has gotten a boost in recent years from college students and other younger imbibers who are buying into its newly hip image. In 2003, PBR sales spiked 15 percent nationally, with Portland and Seattle emerging as the biggest markets, Stewart said.
So what does this relationship between a beer company and a handful of OSU students say about a university's goal to prepare young people for adulthood?
Larry Roper, OSU's vice provost for student affairs who spearheads the school's alcohol education efforts, said the Pabst Boys are on a positive track. It's entrepreneurial, he said.
"Our responsibility is not to mold (students) into a single lifestyle; it's to equip them with the tools to live a life of integrity," he said.
Give that man a PBR baseball cap.
Ron Soble: 503-302-8118; ronsoble@msn.com
In His Rapid Rise, Edwards Carries A Common Touch
Oct. 26, 2004
The New York Times
By Randal C. Archibold
© Copyright 2004
For a copy of this article, contact News Services at 515-3470.