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NC State University News Clips for November 1-3, 2003

Compiled by North Carolina State University’s News Services, a part of the Public Affairs Office. Listed below are the current news clips. Click on the headline of interest to be taken to the full text. Click on “Return to Headline List” at the bottom of each clip or use the scrollbar to be taken back to this location.

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Magnets: Triangle touts "technology cluster'
At IBM Corp.'s largest U.S. site, hundreds of employees are working on making computers that would be as unobtrusive in users' lives as a wristwatch.

NATIONAL & REGIONAL CLIPS

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Magnets: Triangle touts "technology cluster'

Nov. 2, 2003
Associated Press, Winston-Salem Journal
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK - At IBM Corp.'s largest U.S. site, hundreds of employees are working on making computers that would be as unobtrusive in users' lives as a wristwatch.

In Chapel Hill, biomedical engineers and computing whizzes on the University of North Carolina faculty have started InnerOptic Technology Inc.

The tiny private company's 3-D imaging system would allow surgeons to see internal organs and tumors with a sophisticated camera passed through a tiny peep hole.

The two businesses are representative of the eight emerging industries that a think tank has tabbed as ones that could someday employ thousands from Fort Bragg to the Virginia line, and from Burlington to Rocky Mount.

Business and political leaders in the Research Triangle area hope to focus economic-development efforts around those industries, attracting suppliers and competitors in a catalytic cycle similar to those that led the U.S. auto industry to coalesce around Detroit and the dot.com revolution to be centered in Silicon Valley.

"These are the technologies that we will lead in and where the employment opportunities will be," said Charles Hayes, the president of Research Triangle Regional Partnership, one of North Carolina's seven regional economic-development groups. "We will focus on companies in these technologies, pick the ones that have growth in their future and try to get them to come here rather than somewhere else in the world."

The idea is to leverage local university research and existing business skills in fields such as biotechnology and computing to create "technology clusters."

The partnership, led by former Gov. Jim Hunt, hired Research Triangle Institute to review the region's current advantages.

The nonprofit research organization identified emerging industries in which the Triangle could become among the world leaders.

The eight are:

• Pharmaceuticals.

• Finding and fighting biological agents and infections diseases.

• Agricultural biotechnology.

• Advanced medical care, including genomics (gene manipulation) and proteomics (the study of the proteins inside cells).

• Analytical instruments.

• Nanotechnologies, or the engineering of molecular-scale materials,

• Pervasive computing networks, which aim to mesh wireless networks with computers that seamlessly integrate into users' lives.

• Informatics, or using computers to search databases and find connections not previously plain, as in data mining.

The partnership now plans to analyze companies in the targeted industries that are poised for growth, approach company executives and explain the advantages that their businesses would enjoy if they moved to the Triangle, Hayes said.

More jobs could come from secondary businesses, such as companies that manufacture specialized containers for pharmaceuticals-makers, Hayes said. That type of business might locate in nearby rural areas, where land and labor are cheaper, Hayes said.

Gov. Mike Easley and legislative leaders were briefed on the partnership's findings earlier this month.

State and local governments may be asked to make sure that universities and community colleges in the area are teaching the right courses to attract the industries, that taxes are structured appropriately to fit these types of companies, and that incentives are available to lure them, Hayes said.

Michael Walden, an economist at N.C. State University, said that area leaders are smart to build on the region's high-tech foundation. Focusing recruiting and retention efforts on key industries is also a good idea, he said.

But Walden is less sure about the benefits of taxpayer-funded incentives. He believes that such incentives do little to sway companies more concerned with where they will find workers, where their customers and suppliers are, and how to deliver their products.

"Those are much more important than whether a business will get a tax break," Walden said.

IBM's pervasive computing division placed its heaviest concentration of employees in RTP because of the available software expertise surrounding the company's existing campus, said Eugene Cox, the division's director of product management.

The division also has employees in Austin, Texas, and several sites in New York, and England and Japan, he said.

Cox said that the proximity of Web-equipment-makers Nortel Networks and Cisco Systems Inc. also was attractive for IBM.

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Debate ensues over tuition increases

Nov. 3, 2003
The Technician
By Michele DeCamp, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Technician.

A scattered and sparse crowd of students and faculty came out on Sunday night to hear Chancellor Marye Anne Fox participated in the Tuition Town Hall Meeting in Nelson Hall on Sunday. Chancellor Marye Anne Fox called the meeting to present the Tuition Task Force and Fee Review Committee's reports on their respective proposals to the chancellor and to field student and staff questions and concerns about potential tuition and fee increases.

"This is the listening event. I'm charged with the responsibility of providing a recommendation to the Board of Trustees, and that's going to be informed by a number of things, by the Student Senate and their actions, by the Tuition Task Force and their actions, by the Fee Review Committee, the majority and minority report and by what the people say tonight," Fox said.

The crowd was not as large as they hoped, and Tony Caravano, student body president, remarked that the Parent's Weekend festivities, the football win over UVA and homework probably kept some students away. Chancellor Fox agreed that the crowd was small.

"It looks they're still rejoicing over the football game," Chancellor Fox said. An estimated 40-50 students, staff and faculty came to the meeting.

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor James Oblinger began the review process with a presentation of the Tuition Task Force's findings as well as facts about NCSU that had an impact on their decision.

The Tuition Task Force's majority report, which was sent to Fox on Friday, included a recommendation that Chancellor Fox propose a $300 per year for 3 years to the Board of Trustees with 42 percent of the collected monies going towards "Academic Excellence," 46 percent to financial aid and 12 percent going towards the Graduate Student Support Plan (GSSP). The task force has recommended that the "Academic Excellence" be split into two different main categories. Two-thirds of the money has been proposed to go towards "Quality and Accessibility" and one-third towards faculty and staff salaries.

Oblinger defended their recommendations with statistics about financial aid, unmet student need and peer rankings in respects to the university's tuition rates and teacher/class ratio.

According to the statistics presented, NCSU was at the bottom of tuition rankings.

Caravano followed Oblinger with an overview of the minority report of the Tuition Task Force. He began his presentation by reading one of the personal stories that Amanda Devore, a senior in accounting, has been collecting for her "Personal Stories" project, which she plans on compiling into a book to present to members of the NC Board of Governors, General Assembly, UNC system school trustees and chancellors.

"I have been affected by the tuition increases in two ways. First, I am going deeper into debt. I rely solely on Financial Aid to fund my way through college. With more increases in tuition, I am forced to take out more loans which must be repaid after my education is complete. Second, because I have to take out more loans, and more money is going toward tuition than toward other areas, such as living expenses and books, I have three jobs that I am working so I can afford to live," Caravano read. He did not give the student's name, but he mentioned that the student may have to take a leave of absence from the university because of the stress related to the student's multiple responsibilities.

Caravano pointed out various problems and changes in the university that would suffer negatively from more tuition increases.

"Every increase presents new students who cannot afford to come to this university," Caravano said. He questioned whether or not the economy had changed enough to explain why the Board of Governor's resolution last year to not increase tuition across the 16 UNC schools because of the economic climate does not apply to the Tuition Task Force's decision now. He also raised his concerns over whether the monies collected from the increase could really decrease class sizes or open up more course sections.

Vice Chancellor Tom Stafford also presented the Fee Review Committee's findings on student fee increases. He noted that there are only two other universities in the UNC system that have lower fee packages. Chancellor Fox will decide on her recommendations for fee increases at the same time she decides on her proposal for potential tuition increases.

Stafford relayed their recommendations through a slide-show presentation. The five member fee committee voted 2-1 in favor of a $10 student center operations fee increase, 3-1 in favor of a $10 student center repairs and renovations increase, 2-2 in favor of a $7 physical education fee increase, 2-2 in favor of a $10 intercollegiate athletics fee increase and 3-1 in favor of a $30 education and technology fee increase. All of these fee increases would begin in Fall 2004 if passed.

The committee also agreed the school should retire a $15 indebtedness fee for Carmichael Gym and voted unanimously to add a $400 fee for professional golf managements students to cover their green fees. The final recommendation by the committee in a 2-1 vote was for a $22.50 per semester fee increase for the Carmichael Gym expansion that would begin in the Spring of 2004. Stafford also pointed out that the Student Senate also supported all the fee increases.

Students then spoke for more than an hour about their concerns regarding the increase. Only students asked questions or make comments about the potential increases, and none of the student participants directly supported the tuition increase proposals.

Some students relayed their own stories of paying their own tuition without financial assistance from the university or their families.

Chancellor Fox hoped that these students would be able to obtain help from NCSU's Financial Aid Office.

"All I can is that we are going to try to work with you and provide what ever kind of options we can," Chancellor Fox said.

Students also mentioned out-of-state tuition concerns.

"We're very concerned about our out-of-state tuition. That's part of the reason why we allocating so much for financial aid. We're very proud of our out-of-state students and we want to keep you here," Chancellor Fox said.

Many of the students in attendance are a part of student government, and many of the students made comments were a part of the Tuition Task Force and Fee Review Committee.

"It's a very awesome school at a very Wal-Mart-like price," Seth Lester, student body treasurer, said. He went on to question how the school would maintain the low price tag for students.

Both Oblinger and Chancellor explained numerous times throughout the night that the increase was lower than many universities across the nation. Chancellor Fox explained that right now schools are averaging 14 percent tuition increases. And in some schools in California, students are dealing with 30-40 percent tuition increases.

"We want to keep tuition as low as possible, consistent with quality at NC State," Chancellor Fox said.

The administration also fielded questions about the decrease in library resources such as journal subscriptions.

"We are sensitive to this collection phenomenon that has been going on for years. I'm confident that the library is not going to be disadvantaged," Oblinger said.

Caravano was also asked if he felt like the student and faculty ratio (cited as 16/1) should reflect on the Tuition Task Force's makeup.

"I think there was equal opportunity for everyone to express their opinions. I would say that we could do better," Caravano said. Oblinger also pointed out that the vote was not ever split 10-4, which would have meant that the faculty and students completely disagreed on the issue on the table.

Two of the last students to talk were Pendergrass and Amanda Devore, who both sit on the Tuition Task Force.

Pendergrass commented that all faculty members were sent a letter to attend the meeting, but the student body did not receive a mass e-mail about the event. He also pointed out that North Carolina is a low-income state and leads the nation in the number of people without health care coverage. Pendergrass suggested that these facts suggest why NCSU is at the bottom of tuition cost lists because the people of North Carolina are paying what they can afford. Pendergrass felt that student tuition should not be increased and that more time needs to be investigating the matter.

Devore later came up to the microphone and asked if the tuition increase would really help the university.

"This is just a drop in the bucket," Devore said. "CITIs are such a poor way to raise revenue. How many drops in the bucket is it going to take? You can keep asking students to keep contributing to add one more drop in that bucket and then another drop in the bucket."

But Oblinger maintained his optimism over tuition increases throughout the question and answer period.

"In terms of a CITI, it provides us with the opportunity to spend the bulk of that money on this campus. The tuition increase that is paid by the students of N.C. State will come back to N.C. State and be spent the way that N.C. State would like to see it spent," Oblinger said.

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Shining service for the wealthy

Nov. 3, 2003
The Charlotte Observer
By Rick Rothacker, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Charlotte Observer.

When Jim King's family sold the business seven years ago for more than $100 million, he had a lot of big financial decisions to make.

For help investing his money and minimizing his tax bill, King turned to a bank's wealth management division. A team of advisers helped him buy municipal bonds and endow scholarships at his alma mater, N.C. State University. The bank also assisted the firm's other shareholders -- his children and siblings.

"We had a lot of planning to do when we sold the family business," said King, 64, who was president of Sunox Inc., a Charlotte manufacturer and distributor of industrial gases, before he sold it to a Dutch company. "This made it a whole lot easier."

With more money comes more complex financial needs. That's why banks, brokerages and investment firms have wealth management or private banking arms that offer the kind of services the less well-off could only dream about.

How about a specialist to help you buy a helicopter? Or a personal concierge service to nab World Series tickets? Or the chance to make the same private investments as a bank's top executives?

To qualify for this white-glove treatment, you'll need anywhere from $100,000 to $3 million. That's in investable assets, meaning you can't count your house, car, stereo or baseball-card collection.

Who has this kind of money? As of the middle of this year, the United States had 3.8 million millionaires in terms of investable assets, a 14 percent increase from last year, according to an annual survey of wealthy households by research firm NFO Financial Services.

Financial services firms say catering to the rich is a growing business, especially as baby boomers hit their peak earning years or retire.

In 2002, financial services firms compiled revenues of $123 million from wealthy clients, down from $144 million in 2002 because of the stock market slide, according to Boston Consulting Group.

Just last week, Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. said it was buying FleetBoston Financial Corp., largely to tap wealthy Northeast markets. And earlier this year, Wachovia Corp., Charlotte's other big bank, said its brokerage joint venture with Prudential Financial Inc. would help it attract more affluent clients.

These wealthy customers range from corporate CEOs to "millionaire next door" investors who quietly save their money year after year, experts said.

"There are plumbers. There are people at professional services firms on track for partner," said Bruce Holley, head of Boston Consulting Group's North American Wealth and Asset Management practice. "They wear very many faces."

Leather chairs, marble tables

Walk into a wealth management office, and you'll quickly see the difference from your typical bank branch or brokerage office.At Wachovia's uptown Charlotte wealth management office, clients can recline in leather chairs at marble tables in conference rooms named after some of the major stock market indices.

In U.S. Trust's wood-paneled suite, also in uptown, advisers meet their customers in a 19th floor conference room with a panoramic view of the city, often over a catered lunch. "We want to convey a feeling of warmth and hospitality," said Suzanne Bledsoe, Charlotte division president for U.S. Trust, a wealth management subsidiary of San Francisco's Charles Schwab Corp. "Wealth management implies something that could be intimidating."

Of course, these and other firms also make house calls to their clients' homes, offices and country clubs.

Most wealth management firms serve their clients with one adviser, sometimes called a "relationship manager," who acts as the point person for a team of specialists in financial planning, asset management, banking, estate planning and other services. Merrill Lynch & Co., for example, has a "Total Merrill" program that seeks to package checking accounts, mortgages, investments and other options for clients.

Many of the firms have been pitching financial planning as the focus of their services. They typically charge customers an annual fee that is a percentage of client assets, usually between 1 percent to 2 percent, with that percentage declining as a client's wealth grows. Not all customers, of course, concentrate their business with just one firm, maintaining other family advisers such as lawyers and attorneys.

In some cases, wealth advisers become close with their clients, often working with multiple generations of a family as they handle complex inheritance and estate issues. "We're at weddings. We're at the hospital," said Joel Walters, head of the Charlotte region for Wachovia's wealth management division. "We become part of the family."

Wealth management has its roots in old-line banks, where trust departments once acted as conservative stewards of wealthy clients' money. In years past, these trust officers might even have walked their customers' dogs or picked up their mail when they traveled. That has changed as the industry has become more diverse and sophisticated, today's advisers say. But they still provide the kind of personal service that your average investor would never expect.

Consider these examples.

Rick Verdone, who advises wealthy clients for Citigroup Inc.'s Smith Barney unit in Charlotte, recently visited an older customer's house to help her set up online services on her home computer. The client wanted to use online bill-paying to simplify her finances, he said. "It's not in our job description to do this kind of thing, but it comes from professional responsibility and friendship," Verdone said.

At Bank of America's Private Bank, an adviser in North Carolina recently had a client who wanted help buying a certain type of helicopter, said Brenda Seligmann, head of the private bank's operations in North Carolina. The adviser called the bank's aviation group, which had a specialist find an available model at the best price, she said.

Fidelity Investments recently introduced a concierge service for its "private access" clients, who have at least $1 million invested with the Boston-based investment firm. Last month, one of the big requests was for World Series tickets, said Gail Graham, a Fidelity senior vice president. In another case, a client used the concierge to hire a famous chef to prepare a special birthday dinner for his wife, she said.

"It's something that reflects that these clients are extremely busy and extremely successful," said Graham, declining to name the chef. "It's not that they can't do it. They need efficient and cost-effective way to do it."

Good returns

All these perks are nice, but wealthy investors also want good returns, especially after the turbulent market of the past few years. From 2001 to 2002, U.S. households with investable assets of at least $250,000 saw the value of their assets decline more than 10 percent, or nearly $2 trillion, to $15.4 trillion, according to Boston Consulting Group's survey of 29 wealth management firms.

Beside personalized stock and bond portfolios, wealth management firms offer so-called alternative investments such as hedge funds, which can range from risky, high-return investments to ones carefully calibrated to minimize losses. Wealthy clients also can make equity investments in private companies that can yield big returns if the firm later goes public or is bought by another company. Smith Barney offers its wealthiest clients the opportunity to make private investments alongside top executives such as Chairman Sandy Weill.

Other options include oil and gas rights and ranch and timberlands. For its clients, Bank of America's Private Bank manages 120,000 gas and oil properties and 2 million acres of farms, ranches and timberland. "We will go in and run the farm for you," said Bank of America's Seligmann.

Many wealth management clients leave day-to-day investment decisions to their advisers, preferring only occasional performance updates. Others get more involved, using online banking and telephone services.

King, a Wachovia wealth management client, met with one of the bank's municipal bond specialists to choose the securities he wanted to buy. He gets regular updates from his adviser and watches the markets. He is pleased with how the portfolio he and his advisers devised has fared in difficult times.

"Everyone has lost money," King said. "But the loss was not as bad as it could have been."

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People: N.C. State University

Nov. 3, 2003
The News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

Chimone Parris recently joined the technology department as Web master and blackboard administrator. A business school graduate of West Virginia University and current student at N.C. State University, she brings more than six years of technological experience to St. Aug's. She has run a successful entrepreneurial venture that provides design, development and hosting to small and mid-size businesses.

James Rice, professor of zoology and extension fisheries specialist, has been named chairman of the N.C. State Marine Science Council. He replaces Michael Stoskopf, professor of clinical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, who stepped aside to devote more time to other academic activities. Rice has served on the Marine Science Council since 1998 and is also the chairman of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' marine resources faculty.

John Levin, a professor of higher education in the university's College of Education, has been named Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor. Levin joined the College of Education in 2002 from the University of Arizona, where he conducted research and taught at the Center for the Study of Higher Education. He was also director of the Community College Institute, a research arm of the center. He holds a doctorate in higher education and a bachelor's degree in English from the University of British Columbia and a master's degree in English literature from York University in Toronto.

Cassius Stanley Williams (Class of 1969) of New Bern, Sheila M. Benny (1990) of Raleigh, Scott Troutman (1989) of Atlanta and Lt. Gen. Dan K. McNeill (1968), a native of Warsaw, were presented teh Alumni Association's highest awards for their service to NCSU. Non-alumni Curtis Carver and George Worsley also were honored. Williams was presented teh Meritorious Service Award for his outstanding contributions to the university, his profession and community. Benn and Troutman each received the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, which recognizes NCSU alumni younger than 42. Craver received the Award of Merit, which honors a nonalumnus who has made outstanding contributions to the NCSU community. Worsley, vice chancellor for finance and business, was presented the Honorary Alumnus Award, which recognizes those who demonstrate their devotion to NCSU through faithful participation in the life of the university. A special citation was awarded to McNeill, deputy commanding general and chief of staff of the U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson, Ga.

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Israeli, Palestinian discuss conflict

Nov. 1, 2003
News & Observer
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Observer

RALEIGH -- One speaker was Israeli, the other Palestinian. They came to tell a crowd at N.C. State University about loved ones killed during the conflict in the Middle East, and about reconciliation.

"You will be the messengers of our work by talking to your classes, your family, at work," Ghazi Brighith, the Palestinian, said.

But what kind of messengers will they be?

Similar Triangle events have failed to attract enough voices from both sides of the debate. The gathering Friday, part of a four-day series that continues today, drew a mixed crowd and reviews.

The audience of about 100 professionals, NCSU students, faculty and staff filled about half of Witherspoon Student Center auditorium. They had purple hair and crew cuts, guitars and tennis racquets, zionist and Arab allegiances. A Muslim organizer from the Middle East and North African Student Association darted out for afternoon prayers shortly before the 1:30 p.m. program began. A woman arrived looking for a man she'd seen "in a little Jewish hat" and a moment later realized she was in the right place -- there on stage sat Israeli speaker Yitzhak Frankenthal in his white yarmulke.

Frankenthal talked about losing his 19-year-old son, who was kidnapped and killed by terrorists. Brighith talked about his two younger brothers, who were also killed. They met through the Parents' Circle, a Long Island-based group of bereaved families.

"Our main language is not Hebrew or English, but emotionally, we communicate with one another. There is no language of pain," Frankenthal said.

The crowd wanted details. If you want peace, a few students at the back asked Frankenthal, why are Israelis settling and building walls on Palestinian land? They aren't me, Frankenthal said.

NCSU junior Bo Mechanic wondered what both sides have to do to create peace. Leave the occupied territories, Frankenthal said, or at least reach an agreement to do so.

Mechanic, 20, was aghast. He is Jewish. His brother is about to leave to spend a year in Israel. "They made Israelis look like the bad guys," he said.

Others enjoyed the discussion.

"It just blows your mind, the gravity of the situation," said Deborah Fisher, 21, an NCSU senior who studied for six months in Israel. "A lot of what they're saying is true, but a lot of the Israelis cannot get it through their minds, the Palestinian point of view."

A few hours of stories and general questions in a college auditorium are not going to change minds, said Rajaie Qubain, 39, of Durham. A longtime member of the Triangle Palestinian/Jewish Dialogue Group, he came looking for curiosity Friday, not transformations.

"You're not going to get that at a panel," he said, "You get it by meeting people at things like this, outside in the hallway afterward, saying hey, let's meet again."

Today's program is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Durham Arts Council.

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Expert Can Discuss Impact of FDA Policy on Cloned Animals, Food

Oct. 31, 2003
Newswise
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003 Newswise.

Newswise — Now that some of the first farm animals developed through cloning have produced offspring, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is scheduled to release a preliminary report Tuesday, Nov. 4, on the potential hazards of allowing food from cloned animals to be sold to consumers.

Dr. Thomas J. Hoban, professor of sociology and food science at North Carolina State University, can discuss the implications of the FDA policy. Based on research into consumer responses to animal biotechnology, Hoban believes consumers will not view cloned-animal food products as equivalent to normally bred animal food products, for a number of reasons.

First, Hoban says, research shows many people have legitimate concerns about animal welfare and believe that animals have some basic rights. People fear that living animals will suffer pain through cloning and genetic modification, especially from the many failed attempts associated with cloning. People also develop strong emotional bonds with companion animals, Hoban says.

Another reason for greater concern over animal biotechnology relates to the fact that animals are closer to humans in an evolutionary sense than are plants or microbes. Hoban says some consumers worry that once scientists are able to modify or clone animals, the “slippery slope” will extend to human cloning.

Public confidence in the government also determines the likelihood of consumers to accept biotechnology, Hoban says. However, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that the federal regulatory system for animal biotechnology is inadequate for most consumers.

“Regulations for cloned and genetically modified animals are not yet established, but the animals are knocking on the barn door,” Hoban says. He adds that public policies must be based on greater appreciation for consumers’ rights to feel secure about the food supply, which is tied to consumers’ rights to know about any changes that may have taken place.

Research indicates that consumption of meat and dairy products will likely fall if people learn or suspect that animals have been cloned or modified in the process. The current trend away from animal-based products to soy-based products will likely accelerate, hurting most livestock producers, Hoban says.

Hoban also believes that American consumers will be much less accepting of all forms of biotechnology if they believe they have no choice about whether or not to consume meat or milk from cloned livestock. He adds that animal biotechnology must deliver clear benefits for everyone from the farm to the table, while avoiding unnecessary harm to animals.

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Beef prices skyrocket

Nov. 3, 2003
The Shelby Star
By Emily Killian, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Shelby Star.

You may have noticed the meat counter at your local store has a sirloin selection — with filet mignon prices.

That’s because the price of beef is up and demand is high, spelling bad news for thousands of people around Cleveland County, including Sandra Earl of Shelby, who buys a lot of beef — especially high-end cuts.

Although she doesn’t eat beef that often, her husband, Doug, does, sometimes more than five times a week.

While Mrs. Earl does not think the rise in prices will be a big problem for her, it could create a significant issue for other residents, especially if prices jump again like they did two weeks ago.

Max Bridges, owner of Bridges Market, said the price of ribeyes skyrocketed last week —a $1.50 per pound jump overnight.

“These are the highest prices I’ve ever paid for meat in my whole life,” he said. “And the fastest jump in price ever.”

Within the past year, the price for beef has gone up between 30 and 40 percent, Bridges said, adding that about 25 percent of that jump was within the past few weeks.

According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Web site, retail prices for beef rose on average from $2.65 in July to $2.76 in August.

Reasons given by experts for the price hike range from mad cow disease to successful advertising and the Atkins diet.

Greg Traywick, Cleveland County Cooperative Extension director, believes that the rise in price tracks back to the case of mad cow disease found in Alberta, Canada, in May.

“There was a positive case of mad cow disease in Canada, so the U.S. banned Canadian beef imports,” said Traywick. “Canada accounts for approximately 10 percent of our beef imports.”

Geoff Benson, an extension economist who specializes in beef, agrees.

“One cow automatically triggers a closing of the border,” he said. “This lowers the amount of beef available — and tends to push prices up.

“We are having record prices,” Benson said. “But they will tend to drop as the Canadian border opens.”

However, Michael Walden, a professor of economics at N.C. State University, believes an additional factor for the price increase is a simple rise in demand.

Whatever the reason, the rise in beef prices isn’t bad news for everyone — cattle farmers are the beneficiaries of the heightened demand, Benson said.

The price spike might be short-lived, however.

“The Canadian border does not look like it will stay closed too much longer,” Benson said. “Canadian authorities are taking care of it and normal trade will resume.”

The rise in prices may also be attributed to what Benson called the “cattle cycle,” where prices and beef production tend to fluctuate regularly over a 12-year span.

When beef prices are high, more people want into the business, tightening the market because these new farmers buy females from other farmers. This reduces the number of cows going to slaughter. After a few years, however, these females begin reproducing, causing a surplus of cows, which in turn, are eventually slaughtered. Prices then drop, and farmers get discouraged, selling their animals and flooding the beef market once again, Benson said.

Although he said the numbers in the national beef herd are low, he does expect a rise in the number of cows, which will eventually drive prices down.

Benson attributes the rise in price to several other factors, including the promotional efforts of the beef industry and the popularity of the Atkins diet.

“People are having a love affair with beef,” he said. “Sales are remarkably strong.

“We may say that we’re going to switch to chicken or pork, but people rarely do.”

While Bridges expects prices to stabilize over the next few weeks, he said the number of customers requesting beef at his market hasn’t dropped.

Mrs. Earl does not feel that the rise in beef prices will affect her husband’s eating habits.

“He just loves beef that much — he won’t switch to a cheaper meat.”

For the Earls, living without beef is not an option. “He’ll pay whatever he has to pay,” she said. “We’ll just have to take out a loan to keep him in business,” she said jokingly.

“He’s not going to give up his beef.”

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Frat Members, Residents At Odds Over Historic Raleigh Property

Oct. 31, 2003
WRAL-TV
By Kamal Wallace, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 wral.com

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The former home of a famous writer and gardener is at the center of a controversy.

The FarmHouse, a fraternity at North Carolina State University, owns the old Elizabeth Lawrence home on Park Avenue.

Fraternity members want to tear it down and build a new frat house, but others who live in the neighborhood want to preserve the property.

On Friday, some City Council members gave the fraternity a few days to find a solution that would both save the historic home and allow them to build a new house.

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Footnotes

Nov. 3, 2003
The News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

Ceremonies fete new projects

There has been a lot of groundbreaking on Triangle campuses in the past two weeks- evidence of the $3.1 billion in higher education bonds approved by voters in 2000 and Duke University's ambitious building plan.

In Durham, N.C. Central University broke ground on its new West Campus on Friday, which also was the university's Founder's Day. The West Campus will include teh New Baynes Residence Hall and the $36 million Science Complex, which will include a wing for the university's new center for biomanufacturing research. NCCU also held a ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of a new residence hall.

Also on Friday, Duke University held a ceremony to celebrate the start of a new two-story building at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. The $12 million building will be across the lawn from the institute's current building, which opened in 1994. It should be completed before the 2005-2006 academic year. The building is partly funded with a $5 million gift from David M. Rubenstein, a 1970 Duke graduate and founding partner and managing director of The Carlyly Group, a global private equity firm.

On Oct. 24, N.C. State University broke ground on a $35 million building on Centennial Campus . It is the second phase of the relocation of the engineering college to Centennial Campus. It will be home to the computer science and electrical and computer engineering departments. The building should be finished by 2005.

Vet school professor honored

N.C. State University doesn't have a medical school, but it now has its first member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. Jim E. Riviere is the Burroughs Wellcome Fund distinguished professor of pharmacology and director of the Center for Chemical Toxicology Research and Pharmacokinetics at NCSU's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Riviere, who studies the absorption and transport of drugs and chemicals across the skin, was one of 65 people elected to the institute. In the world of animals, his method is used in food safety issues to predict how drugs and chemicals seep through skin and into the edible tissues of animals that produce food.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences and has become recognized as a national resource for analysis and recommendations on issues related to human health.

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Milestones

Nov. 3, 2003
Winston-Salem Journal
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Winston-Salem Journal

Jennifer Rowell was recently inducted into Phi Sigma Theta national honor society. She attends N.C. State University and is the daughter of Eddie and Debbie Rowell of Advance.

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Suspect In Wreck That Killed Six Makes Court Appearance

Nov. 3, 2003
NBC-17, Associated Press, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL, Wilmington Morning Star
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 NBC-17

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The man charged in the drunken-driving crash that killed six people over the weekend had previous driving violations that include aiding and abetting drunken driving in 1990, court records show.

Investigators on Sunday charged Larry Veeder, 32, of Raleigh, with drunken driving and involuntary manslaughter -- six counts. The former chimney sweep turned professional clown is scheduled to make a court appearance Monday in Wake County.

Troopers called the crash Saturday night at N.C. 54 and Nowell Road near Carter-Finley Stadium the Triangle's worst in years. Five people were killed at the intersection, their bodies strewn across the road, and a sixth died on the way to the hospital.

"It was just a horrific scene," said Sgt. Everett Clendenin, of the state Highway Patrol.

Shortly after 8:45 p.m. Saturday, troopers said that Baron A. Fulk, a 20-year-old N.C. State sophomore, ran a stop sign as he pulled his green Chevrolet Blazer onto N.C. 54 and was struck by a silver Blazer driven by Martha P. West, 40, of Marble in Cherokee County. Neither had any passengers.

Robert Alfaro Jr., 46, and wife Gene-Marie Louise Alfaro, 48, of Waxhaw, in town for N.C. State's parents weekend, stopped to help. So did two alumni on their way home from the North Carolina State-Virginia football game at Carter-Finley Stadium: Dennis Wayne Bowes, 28, a financial planner from Cary, and Bryan Matthew Tutor, 29, a heating and air conditioning repairman from Coats.

Nolan Phillips Myers, 18, a Campbell University freshman from Minnesota, was also headed home from the game when he stopped.

Christopher Clemons, 41, heard the accident from his nearby home pedaled over on his bicycle.

Veeder, who works at Professional Paint and Sheetrock in Raleigh, was driving east on N.C. 54 (also known as Chapel Hill Road) when he struck the group, Clendenin said. Troopers on Sunday were still trying to determine how fast Veeder was traveling in his white work van.

Troopers suspected Veeder was drunk when they arrived. He had alcohol on his breath, his eyes were glassy and his voice slurred, according to Wake magistrate's records. He refused to take a breath-alcohol test, so while the dead were taken to the state medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill and the injured to WakeMed and Rex hospitals, Veeder went to Wake County jail.

Veeder was being held in lieu of $120,000 bail late Sunday, scheduled to appear in court by Monday afternoon. Court papers Sunday did not list an attorney representing him.

Court records show Veeder's previous convictions also include failing to comply with license restrictions in 1994. He pleaded guilty to driving without a license in 1992.

Those who know Veeder said Sunday night that he is a gentle, generous person with a stock of jokes and a repertoire of sleight-of-hand tricks.

None of the crash victims was autopsied Sunday. Staff at the medical examiner's office could tell from a visual examination that five of the victims died from blunt force trauma. They had yet to examine Clemons' body.

Clemons, who worked for a road-striping company, did not grab identification before he went to the crash scene, and he went unidentified until relatives were called to WakeMed on Sunday. They knew him by the tattoo on his left shoulder: "Agnes," a memorial to his mother.

Also Sunday, Martha West was released from Rex Hospital, according to state Highway Patrol Sgt. Barry Hower.

Fulk, the driver of the green Blazer, was conscious and in serious condition at WakeMed. Parents Joseph and Dianne Fulk, of Asheville, and brother Joe Fulk, 26, were with him. The family chose not to discuss the crash.

Investigators had not filed charges against Fulk late Sunday, but Clendenin said troopers were investigating how fast he was driving and whether alcohol played a role in the initial crash.

A classmate who visited Fulk in the hospital Sunday said he was driving home from visiting a friend in Raleigh and on his way to meet more friends when the crash occurred. Senior Chiao Cheng said she did not think Fulk had been drinking.

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Authorities identify the 6 killed while helping at scene of wreck

Nov. 3, 2003
Associated Press; Winston-Salem Journal; WTVD-11; WCCO, MN; Fredericksburg.com, VA; NBC-17;
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press

Authorities have released the identities of six people who stopped to help victims of a traffic accident and were killed when a van plowed into the scene of the earlier wreck.

The van's driver, Larry Robert Veeder, 32, of Raleigh was charged with six counts of involuntary manslaughter and driving while intoxicated, Sgt. Everett Clendenin, a spokesman for the N.C. Highway Patrol, said.

Veeder was held Sunday in the Wake County jail with bond set at $100,000.

The accidents happened Saturday on a congested two-lane N.C. Hwy. 54 near N.C. State University's Carter-Finley Stadium.

The wrecks at 8:45 p.m. came about two hours after N.C. State's football victory over Virginia.

Clendenin said that it wasn't yet known if any of those involved had been among the nearly 54,000 people attending the football game.

Those killed were identified as: Dennis Wayne Bowes, 28, of Cary; Robert Alfaro Jr., 46, and his wife, Jean Marie Louise Alfaro, 48, both of Matthews; Bryan Matthew Tutor, 29, of Coats; and Nolan Phillips Myers, 18, of Carver, Minn.

Also killed was an unidentified man on a bicycle who stopped at the scene, Clendenin said.

"All six had stopped to assist," Clendenin said.

The accidents started when a green 1996 Chevrolet Blazer driven by Baron A. Fulk of Asheville failed to stop at a stop sign on Nowell Road. It collided with a silver 2003 Chevrolet Blazer traveling west on N.C. 54, troopers said.

Fulk and the driver of the newer sport utility vehicle - Martha P. West, 40, of Marble - were treated at the scene for their injuries.

As good Samaritans gathered to help the drivers, Veeder's white Ford Econoline heading east toward Raleigh on N.C. 54 plowed into Fulk's Blazer and those collected at the scene, troopers said.

Five were dead at the scene. The unidentified bicyclist died while on the way to Wake Medical Center, Clendenin said.

Investigators say they don't think that anyone was in the van with Veeder.

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Raleigh Man Faces Involuntary Manslaughter Charges After 6 Six Killed In Raleigh

Nov. 3, 2003
WRAL-TV
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 wral.com

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Larry Robert Veeder, 32, of Raleigh, has been charged with six counts of involuntary manslaughter and DWI as the result of a traffic accident that left six people dead Saturday. He is in the Wake County jail under a $100,000 bond.

According to investigators, a green 1996 Chevrolet Blazer operated by Baron Fulk was traveling south on Nowell Road around around 8:45 p.m. and ran the stop sign at Nowell and N.C. 54. A 2003 silver Chevrolet Blazer, operated by Martha P. West, was traveling west on N.C. 54 and collided with Fulk's Blazer. After several people stopped to aid the injured, a white Ford van operated by Veeder was traveling east on N.C. 54, struck Fulk's Blazer and several pedestrians at the collision scene.

Five people were killed at the scene as a result of the second collision. One died while en route to WakeMed.

The fatalities have been identified as:

Dennis Wayne Bowes, 28, of Cary
Robert Alfaro Jr., 46, of Matthews
Jean Marie Louise Alfaro, 48, of Matthews
Bryan Matthew Tutor, 29, of Coats
Nolan Phillips Myers, 18, of Carver, Minn.
Christopher Donell Clemons, 41, of Raleigh,

West, 40, of Marble, N.C., and Fulk , 20, of Asheville, were injured in the collisions.

Police said traffic from the North Carolina State-Virginia football game at nearby Carter-Finley Stadium may have contributed to the accident.

The Raleigh Police Department, the Highway Patrol, the Wake County Sheriff's Office and Western Wake Fire Department were all called to the scene.

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Wake plans charges in hazing incident

Nov. 2, 2003
Associated Press, Winston-Salem Journal, WRAL-TV, The News & Observer
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.

A prosecutor says he expects to file criminal charges against several Avery County High School athletes accused of involvement in a hazing incident in which victims said they were sexually assaulted.

Assistant D.A. Howard Cummings of Wake County said Friday that his office and Raleigh police have completed an investigation. The inquiry began after parents of those who say they were victims complained after a basketball camp in Raleigh this summer.

"We're in the process of determining which charges might be appropriate. We expect to file charges within the next two weeks against six or seven students," said Cummings, who declined to disclose names.

"Some (suspects) are juveniles, some are adults, and they vary in degree of responsibility."

Principal Pat Edwards of Avery County High School said that 20 male basketball players traveled to Raleigh on a school-sponsored trip to a basketball camp at N.C. State University from June 19 through 22. The trip included incoming freshmen, upperclassmen and coaches. She said that the incidents in question occurred at University Towers, a private dormitory off campus.

Edwards said that some but not all of the 20 students were disciplined by the school. She declined to say how many students were involved or release their names, and she declined to identify any coaches who attended the camp.

"Some of the students were victims, others were perpetrators," Edwards said.

She said that several steps have been taken to separate the boys' junior varsity and varsity teams to avoid contact between victims and perpetrators.

"They have separate locker rooms, separate practice times, separate travel plans," she said.

"Some of those plans were already in place because they are on different teams, and some of those we implemented after we took a closer look following the incident."

Edwards declined to comment on the possibility of criminal charges.

The school, located in Newland, about 70 miles northeast of Asheville, hired a law firm to investigate after hearing allegations from the community. Edwards said in August that it appeared no sexual assaults occurred.

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Compassion united six at a deadly crossroads

Nov. 3, 2003
The News & Observer
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Benjamin Niolet adn Margie Fishman, staff writers
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

RALEIGH -- It began as a collision of SUVs at a darkened crossroads that drew six helpful souls Saturday night, until Larry Veeder's white van barreled out of the darkness.

On Sunday, investigators charged Veeder, 32, with drunken driving and involuntary manslaughter -- six counts.

six killed; two injured
KILLED:

Gene-Marie Louise Alfaro, 48, of Waxhaw

Robert Alfaro Jr., 46, of Waxhaw

Dennis Wayne Bowes, 28, of Cary

Christopher Clemons, 41, of Raleigh

Nolan Phillips Myers, 18, of Carver, Minn.

Bryan Matthew Tutor, 29, of Coats

INJURED:

Baron A. Fulk, 20, of Asheville

Martha P. West, 40, of Marble

Troopers called the crash at N.C. 54 and Nowell Road the Triangle's worst in years. Five people were killed at the intersection, their bodies strewn across the road. A sixth died on the way to the hospital.

"It was just a horrific scene," said Sgt. Everett Clendenin of the state Highway Patrol.

By Sunday, troopers had a clearer picture of what brought each of the dead and injured to the scene shortly after 8:45 p.m. the night before.

Troopers said that Baron A. Fulk, a 20-year-old N.C. State sophomore, ran a stop sign as he pulled his green Chevrolet Blazer onto N.C. 54 and was struck by a silver Blazer driven by Martha P. West, 40, of Marble in Cherokee County. Neither had any passengers.

Robert Alfaro Jr., 46, and wife Gene-Marie Louise Alfaro, 48, of Waxhaw, in town for N.C. State's parents weekend, stopped to help. So did two alumni on their way home from the football game at Carter-Finley Stadium: Dennis Wayne Bowes, 28, a financial planner from Cary, and Bryan Matthew Tutor, 29, a heating and air conditioning repairman from Coats.

Nolan Phillips Myers, 18, a Campbell University freshman from Minnesota, was also headed home from the game when he stopped.

Christopher Clemons, 41, heard the accident from his home on nearby Lincolnville Road and pedaled over on his bicycle.

Veeder, who works at Professional Paint and Sheetrock in Raleigh, was driving east on N.C. 54 (also known as Chapel Hill Road) -- troopers are trying to figure out how fast -- when he struck the group, Clendenin said.

Tim Parry, 23, an N.C. State senior, watched the collision. He was behind the cars of a few victims, who had parked short of the stop sign on Nowell Road.

"I noticed out of the corner of my eye the white work van, and I thought 'Why doesn't he slow down? Doesn't he see this SUV in the middle of the road?' " Parry said. He listened for screeching tires but heard none, and then the bodies flew through the air.

As one of his passengers dialed 911, Parry and the two others jumped out to help the injured.

"All we heard was moaning and yelling and screaming," he said.

Careful to stay clear of the road, Parry said he quickly discovered a fellow student had just seen his parents killed.

Early suspicions

Troopers suspected Veeder was drunk when they arrived. He had alcohol on his breath, his eyes were glassy and his voice slurred, according to Wake magistrate's records. He refused to take a breath-alcohol test, so while the dead were taken to the state medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill and the injured to WakeMed and Rex hospitals, Veeder went to Wake County jail.

Veeder was being held in lieu of $120,000 bail late Sunday, scheduled to appear in court by this afternoon. Court papers Sunday did not list an attorney representing him.

Veeder has previous convictions for aiding and abetting drunken driving in 1990 and failing to comply with license restrictions in 1994. He pleaded guilty to driving without a license in 1992.

Mourning, praying

None of the crash victims was autopsied Sunday. Staff at the medical examiner's office could tell from a visual examination that five of the victims died from blunt force trauma. They had yet to examine Clemons' body.

Clemons, who worked for a road-striping company, did not grab identification before he went to the crash scene, and he went unidentified until relatives were called to WakeMed on Sunday. They knew him by the tattoo on his left shoulder: "Agnes," a memorial to his mother.

Christopher Alfaro, the N.C. State freshman who was with his parents at the crash, wept in a police car at the scene before returning to his dorm, roommate Jason Schaefer of Matthews said. The computer sciences major set out Sunday morning with his twin brother, Robert Alfaro, also a student at the university, to meet a third younger brother at home near Charlotte, Schaefer said.

Also Sunday, Martha West was released from Rex Hospital, according to state Highway Patrol Sgt. Barry Hower. Efforts to reach her failed.

Fulk, the driver of the green Blazer, was conscious and in serious condition at WakeMed. Parents Joseph and Dianne Fulk of Asheville and brother Joe Fulk, 26, were with him. The family chose not to discuss the crash.

"They just wish prayers instead of press," said the Rev. Paul Christy of Sylva, who was with the family Sunday and recently succeeded Joseph Fulk as pastor of First United Methodist Church in Sylva, near Asheville.

Investigators had not filed charges against Fulk late Sunday, but Clendenin said troopers were investigating how fast he was driving and whether alcohol played a role in the initial crash.

A classmate who visited Fulk in the hospital Sunday said he was driving home from visiting a friend in Raleigh and on his way to meet more friends when the crash occurred. Senior Chiao Cheng said she did not think Fulk had been drinking.

Friends offer support

Veeder was a regular at Sadlack's Heroes, a Hillsborough Street bar and sandwich shop where he was known as "Blinker." Many said Sunday night that Veeder is a gentle, generous person with a stock of jokes and a repertoire of sleight-of-hand tricks. He painted children's faces at Sadlack's on Halloween. He is a former chimney sweep and a professional clown who juggled and played the ukulele, the blues harmonica and squeezebox.

Veeder is known for wearing hats, including porkpies and fedoras. The hats, the instruments, the tricks and the corny jokes define his personality, said Peter Eichenberger, a columnist for the Independent Weekly.

"The ukulele just kind of suits this goofy, gentle nature he has," Eichenberger said.

His friends at Sadlack's wrote a note on a message board Sunday: "Hey, turn your sadness and concern into support for one of 'ours' who surely needs it NOW! Write a letter of support, love and of friendship. It will help him greatly and it will help you in your dealings with grief and sorrow."

"Out of all the people I know, Blinker is the most tragic person for this to happen to because he really wouldn't hurt a fly. He's a gentle-natured, gentle person," said Ryan Carlson, 34.

Patrons said Sunday that Veeder had not been in the bar before the accident.

By Sunday, much of the physical wreckage at the crash site had been removed. There were small reminders: a tangle of wires wrapped in a dandelion, shards of taillights, a shattered side-view mirror and a silver Chevrolet emblem. Passing cars sped over chalk outlines that straddled the middle of the road.

Tim Parry, the student who saw the crash, has had trouble sleeping. He wondered Sunday what Veeder was thinking as he sat in jail.

"Does he have any idea of what he's done?" Parry said. "The vision of the bodies -- that's pretty hard to get rid of."

Staff writer Molly Hennessy-Fiske can be reached at 829-4884.

Staff writers Cindy George and Chris Serres, news researcher Toby Lyles and reporter Tim Harlow of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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Modaferri Family Plants Tree As Symbol Of Hope That Daughter Will Be Found

Nov. 2, 2003
WRAL-TV
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 wral.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Kristen Modaferri's family wished she could have celebrated her 24th birthday Saturday with them. But Modaferri has been missing since June 23, 1997.

"Is Kristen alive?" her mother, Debbie asked. "I don't know."

Sunday, her family and friends in Charlotte dedicated a red maple tree to the young woman, who disappeared after she left her job at a San Francisco coffee house.

Modaferri finished her freshman year at N.C. State, studying industrial design. She moved to California temporarily to take summer courses at the University of California-Berkeley. She got a job at a coffeehouse in San Francisco's financial district.

The day before classes were supposed to start, someone saw Modaferri leave the coffeehouse. But no one has seen her since.

Her family has traveled to San Francisco a dozen times. They say they will never give up hope.

Sunday, the family was at Providence High School, Modaferri's alma mater. At 3 p.m., they said another prayer and honored Kristen.

The Modafferis were surrounded by relatives and friends, Kristen's father said he is grateful for the continued love and support.

"Without that, I think you wind up feeling down at times," Bob Modaferri said, "thinking how long we keep on doing this."

The family hoped that by putting Kristen's name out there, somebody will remember something.

The Modafferis also work with other families of missing adults. They believe the publicity around events like the tree planting, will help their daughter's search.

"We still hope that at some point, we will be able to find our daughter, too," Bob Modaferri said.

The Modafferis crusaded for a new federal law to help parents searching for missing adults. It is appropriately called Kristen's Law.

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Retired minister Z Holler still preaches Jesus' radical example

Nov. 2, 2003
News & Record
By Tom Steadman, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Record

GREENSBORO -- He spent World War II growing up in Greensboro and attending the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, a pulpit from which he one day would retire.

But first, Z Holler had a few dates to keep with history.

In 1961, he was a young minister favoring desegregation in Anderson, S.C., when the now-famous "Freedom Riders'' stopped in on their turbulent bus ride through Jim Crow's South.

Seven years later, he was associate pastor at a church in central Atlanta when the numbing news came that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., an Atlanta native, had been assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. While some, like Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox, braced for race riots, Holler and his fellow ministers threw open the doors of the church to mourners at King's funeral, feeding thousands in the fellowship hall and housing some of them in the church gymnasium.

On Nov. 3, 1979, he had just moved home to Greensboro when deadly shots rang out at a confrontation between Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen and anti-Klan demonstrators at a city housing project. Five demonstrators were killed and 10 others wounded, and as far as the Rev. Zeb North Holler Jr. was concerned, neither he nor his city would ever be the same.

"It's hard to deal with the truth, especially if it reflects upon us in a way that's not so flattering,'' he says.

Holler says that's why he is helping lead the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project, an effort that, 24 years after the killings at Morningside Homes, is still seeking a comprehensive dialogue on those events, which Holler and others say the city has never had.

"If we can perhaps understand one another and understand the situation well enough, then maybe we can forgive each other,'' Holler says.

At 75, Holler doesn't expect to win any popularity contests. After all, he's spent his life embracing unpopular causes.

"Jesus was a radical,'' Holler says. "His nonviolent ways were not passive. He was straight-out with people about what he was doing. He was constantly under attack because he broke the mold. He constantly invited people who were not supposed to be invited.''

Mike Aiken, director of Greensboro Urban Ministry, an organization that helps to house and feed much of the city's homeless and indigent population, says that Holler, his longtime friend, follows the same path.

"Z is just real committed,'' Aiken says. "He lives his faith. He's a pastor and a compassionate person who cares deeply for those who have been oppressed and left out -- the poor, the outcast, the disenfranchised. He's a champion of the needy. He's a real prophet, but he's a gentle prophet. Being a radical isn't popular, but the truth is there.''

Holler's childhood in Greensboro, where he moved when he was 2, was hardly radical. Named Zeb after his father, a college professor turned sales representative for a chemical company, he was known as "Z.'' His mother, Mary Virginia Holler, taught piano to students in their succession of homes in the Westerwood neighborhood. Z was the middle child; he had two sisters -- one older and one younger.

Holler vividly remembers the World War II years, when he was a student and football scrub at Greensboro Senior High School. The city was crowded with soldiers from the basic training camp that later became the Overseas Replacement Depot. Invariably some of them were in the pews when his family attended the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. Usually, his parents invited a few of them home for lunch.

Patriotism was everywhere. War movies dominated the downtown theaters. Z and his pals staged their own battles in Lake Daniel park, shooting it out with BB guns until a friend nearly lost an eye. "We'd jump off the bridge like we were paratroopers,'' he says.

But he soon learned that combat was hardly play. His older sister, Gwen, lost her fiance when he was killed in action flying a B-17.

"We were very troubled by the war,'' Holler says.

The fighting was over by the time he graduated from high school in 1945 and enrolled in Davidson College, as had his father before him. Four years later, he graduated with an English degree and began teaching high school and coaching football in Lancaster, S.C. When the Korean War broke out, Holler enlisted as a Navy aviator. He spent the war attached to an anti-submarine squadron in Norfolk, Va. During flight training in Pensacola, Fla., he met his future wife, Charlene. They married two years later.

It was during his Navy stint that Holler's mother gave him a book. "A Man Called Peter'' was the story of a poor Scottish immigrant who came to the United States, worked at odd jobs to put himself through seminary, and became a prominent minister and chaplain of the U.S. Senate.

"That book showed me you could be a minister without being a stereotype,'' Holler says.

After his Navy years, Holler enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va., then studied at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Two years later, he returned to fill his first pulpit, pastoring the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Anderson.

It was the dawn of the '60s. In the South, the century-old standards of racial segregation were being challenged. Passions were inflamed on all sides.

"Those were wild times,'' Holler says. The Hollers hosted Freedom Riders, and he and other pastors succeeded in integrating the local ministerial association. But they failed to integrate the city's annual Thanksgiving service. Local leaders wouldn't allow it.

In 1966, he became associate pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, just across from the state capitol and not far from Ebeneezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. had reared a famous son.

Two years later, when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Holler and other ministers at Central Presbyterian opened the church's new cafeteria room to mourners. They fed more than 5,000 and housed more than 100 in the church's gym. College students served meals.

"It was a community event,'' Holler says. "It brought people together and really was a sort of strange celebration.''

Later that year, Holler moved again. This time, it was back to campus, as a minister at N.C. State during a turbulent time for U.S. college students. It was 1968, when the anti-war movement over Vietnam was coming to a head.

"It was a great time, an exciting time,'' Holler said. "It was also a dangerous time. There were a lot of drugs coming to campus from Fort Bragg. A lot of heroin.''

But he felt he was in the right place at the right time. "This is where I was needed,'' he says. "I was very much empathetic to what was happening.''

In the spring of 1975, he became pastor of Fort Hill Presbyterian Church in Clemson, S.C. Finally, in late June 1979, he returned to Greensboro to pastor Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, the church his family had always attended.

The church had lost membership as the surrounding College Hill neighborhood had evolved from middle-class families to absentee landlords.

"The church was in a good deal of distress,'' Holler says. "We redefined our mission. We reached out to the city.''

Self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous were invited to meet at the church. So was the new College Hill Neighborhood Association. A day care cooperative was opened. The church, and the neighborhood, began a slow revival.

Holler had been back in town for just two months when a group of young activists, some of them physicians who had been busy trying to unionize workers in local textile mills, staged a "Death to the Klan'' rally in the Morningside Homes housing development. Holler knew about the rally only because someone had plastered fliers for the event across the movie screen the church had set up in its parking lot. He didn't know anything about the demonstrators, except that they were self-proclaimed members of the Workers Viewpoint Organization.

"I was not kindly disposed to them,'' Holler says.

But he was stunned on Saturday, Nov. 3, when news flashed across his TV screen that shooting had broken out at the rally. Five people were dead and twice that many wounded.

He got calls from his congregation. One of the callers, funeral director Lee Forbis, was handling the bodies of three victims.

"He was nervous about it,'' Holler says. The funeral was to be bizarre; survivors, carrying arms, marched through the city's streets with the coffins. Armed police and National Guard troops lined the route. Forbis drove the lead hearse; Holler rode with him to lend support. "He was my friend,'' Holler says.

Only later would he meet Nelson Johnson, a surviving demonstrator who later became a minister and leader in Greensboro's black community. First, Holler would go to City Hall and get his own copies of reports from various investigations into the shootings. He was still baffled.

"Those reports were not satisfying to me,'' he says.

Then, at a meeting with local ministers, Johnson told his version of the events. "He told about how the police had disarmed them for a parade permit and what a terrible surprise it was to them that these folks (Nazis and Klan members) showed up,'' Holler says. "And how they had all thought that if they did show up, the police would look after them.''

By the time he left the meeting, Holler said, his perspective had changed.

He told Johnson, "The only difference between us is that I think can I can work within the system.''

Ten years later, Holler and Johnson crossed paths again -- this time at a meeting seeking ways to improve conditions and safety in a downtrodden area of Greensboro where a 9-year-old had been shot and killed. They became a committee of two, plotting ways to implement an interracial ministry in southeast Greensboro using tools such as marches and teach-ins.

"It was an education for me,'' Holler says. "It put me in contact with folks who have been on the street, folks very much troubled by racism in society.''

Rabbi Fred Guttman of Temple Emanuel calls Holler a "holy man.''

"He is a very righteous and holy person who is dedicated in the best of biblical tradition toward making better the lot of the poor and the downtrodden within our community,'' Guttman says. "I frankly love being around him.''

By 1993, when Holler was ready to retire from Church of the Covenant, he and Johnson had helped found the Beloved Community Center, a nonprofit facility on Arlington Street. Since its founding, the center has focused on helping the community to come together and deal with its problems.

"Through the years, I've come closer and closer to understanding what Jesus was about,'' Holler says. "Why it was that he was left alone at the end, what he was trying to do, and the way he was trying to do it -- not by drawing influential folks and building a power base but by being with people in need.

"That's what got him in dutch.''

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Student pursues a page in history

Nov. 3, 2003
The News & Observer
By Barbara Barrett, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

Adam B. Smith wants to be famous.

It's not the money he craves, or the popularity or the idea of people stopping him on the street to say, "Hey, aren't you somebody?"

Instead, Smith, 22, wants to be famous to prove that he made a mark on this Earth and that he was not just a slothful parasite sitting on his rear watching MTV.

"I don't think I want to be famous just to be famous," he said. "I think for the things I want to do, fame comes with the territory, if you do it right. I think it's important to leave a legacy."

To Smith's mind, he's on his way. He's on the cusp of publishing his second book in two years -- a coffee-table book detailing a pictorial history of N.C. State University, his alma mater.

Smith is honest about his goals in life and figures now's the time when he is unencumbered by job and family and responsibilities. And, having survived a horrible car accident as a teenager, he has some appreciation for how short life can be.

Smith goes about his goals with organization, using Post-it Notes for his daily to-do lists. A memo board in his room has 3-by-5 cards listing ideas for his movie script, due in March so he can enter it into a screenwriting contest in Wilmington. He's in graduate school partly because he wants a backup plan in case the fame thing doesn't work out, but mostly because it gives him the sort of freedom he needs to pursue his other interests.

Which right now involve a lot of writing.

Last winter, Smith published "Hiddenite, Land of Discovery," a 90-page book about a Western Carolina gemstone and its effects on the local population. He sold more than 350 copies of the volume with the help of a cousin who owns a small publishing company.

This winter, he is self-publishing the book chronicling NCSU in pictures. The Texas printer will begin producing the book once Smith racks up enough orders for the $49.95 volume (which includes shipping and tax).

He stumbled on the idea for the book last fall, as he was nearing graduation and thinking, "Man, I've got to do something." He had settled on a nonfiction book after hearing somewhere that only two of every 10 successful books are fiction.

"North Carolina State University: A Bridge to the Future" runs 160 pages with about 300 photos, chronicling the school's history from the book's first photo -- young male students gathered on the front porch of the university's only building -- to its last, a sunset over the Bell Tower.

"You've got to think, what market is there?" Smith said. "There's a huge market here."

(He's a little embarrassed that his graduate studies in geography are at rival UNC-Chapel Hill. "You don't need to put that in," he said.)

On a recent morning, Smith sat in his Durham apartment, clad in an NCSU-red sweater and gently turning the pages of the proofs sent to him by the printer. On a nearby television, the rapper 50 Cent was playing on MTV, rhyming about the rich life.

"Here's the first graduating class," Smith said, pointing to a photo. "I believe only a fourth of the first class graduated four years later.

"Here's Hillsborough Street. This is a good caption. It was a rural road."

It was tough for Smith to think about what to include. The older pictures do more to show student life, illustrating dances, political protests, a busted panty raid and an unsettling photo, circa 1946, of a fraternity pledge bent over in a suit, getting paddled as part of his initiation rite. There's a photo of Hillsborough Street taken about 1980 showing old neon signs and a marquee advertising a popular X-rated movie of the time.

"That's pretty bad, but you can't cover up history," Smith said.

More recent photos are posed shots of researchers, weather pictures showing the campus buildings during wildflower season or bathed in snow, and artists' renderings of future construction plans.

"It's going to look great sitting on this table," Smith said. "It's going to be cherished by people."

The "bigwigs" at NCSU hope so. Thomas Stafford, vice chancellor for student affairs, met with Smith last week and wants to find a way of getting the book to all incoming freshmen. Stafford said the university has been working hard to foster a stronger bond with students.

That's just another example, to Smith's way of thinking, that his plans are working. The fame thing is not something Smith tells a lot of people about, but he thinks about it. He's looking ahead.

"If I go for a doctorate, that's four more years I can goof off," Smith said. "My goal is to write one book a year.

"I've got two; I'm 22 years old. That's pretty good. Basically, I want to be a well-known author in the future. That's my goal."

Staff writer Barbara Barrett can be reached at 839-4870.

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Defeated bashes party law

Nov. 1, 2003
The News & Observer
By Demorris Lee and Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, staff writers
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

Zack Medford, the N.C. State University student who came in fourth in the race for the Raleigh City Council District D seat, was cited under the city's nuisance party ordinance a few days after the Oct. 7 election.

Now he's endorsing incumbent Benson Kirkman, who says he's working with Medford to look at revisions to the party ordinance that Medford was cited for violating. Kirkman, who pushed the ordinance through a few years ago, faces challenger Thomas Crowder in Tuesday's runoff.

Medford had no comment when asked about the circumstances under which he received the citation. His court date is Nov. 12, according to court records. Kirkman said he talked to Medford about the incident but couldn't remember the specifics.

After he lost the Oct. 7 election, Medford started a group to lobby for student issues. The group now is focusing on revising the nuisance party ordinance, which Medford says uses "vague language."

Kirkman said he pledged to review the ordinance when the council passed it in 2000 as an effort to crack down on loud parties. Kirkman said one issue is whether partyers should receive a ticket if nobody has called to complain.

"There are a couple of clauses in there that are a little bit hazy," Kirkman said. "We want to sit down and see if we need to make a policy change at the council level to tighten it up so there's not too much discretion, or is it an administrative policy as to how it's applied. We want it to be fairly and uniformly enforced, period."

NO LAUGHING MATTER: A candidate forum sponsored by the Cary Chamber of Commerce this week during its Business Expo generated a heated exchange between Cary's two at-large candidates. Michael Joyce was taken aback when incumbent Harold Weinbrecht chuckled when Joyce said that "private developers are painted as big, bad guys when they are really businessmen."

Joyce stopped midsentence, turned to Weinbrecht and said, "It's cockiness like that that we've got to get rid of in Town Hall."

When given the opportunity to respond, Weinbrecht said, "Michael has misjudged my character. I'm certainly not cocky. You can ask my friends."

ENDORSEMENT:

Julie Robison, a candidate to be Cary's next mayor, has received the endorsement of the Sierra Club.

"It's an honor to have their support and endorsement, and I will work to live up to their high standards protecting our environment and natural resources," Robison said in a written statement.

POLITICAL TRAIL

* There will be a reception and fund-raiser for Julie Robison for mayor of Cary from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The event will be at the home of Maril and Ron Yeske at 302 Brittany Place, Cary. For more information, call 345-4392.

* Ernie McAlister, candidate for Cary mayor, will greet supporters tonight at the annual Art Ball sponsored by Cary Visual Arts. The event is at 7 p.m. at Embassy Suites in Cary.

Triangle Politics is a weekly look at the local political scene. Got a tip, item or upcoming event? Fax Triangle Politics at 829-4529.

Compiled by staff writers Demorris Lee and Sarah Lindenfeld Hall.

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Tough love from Toni Morrison

Nov. 2, 2003
The News & Observer
By Denise Heinze
 © Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison never lets her readers rest.

To due a web site error at the News & Observer, the text for this article will be featured in tomorrow's clips page.

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A perfect match graces two lives

Nov. 2, 2003
The News & Observer
By Mary E. Miller, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

At the Southwest Airlines baggage terminal, Shannon Doorhy breathes behind a sterile medical mask, her blue-green eyes nervously scanning the crowd.

To due a web site error at the News & Observer, the text for this article will be featured in tomorrow's clips page.

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Bills Bring Pain

Nov. 2, 2003
The News & Observer
By Mark Minton, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

In the hierarchy of annoyances that burden people's lives, paying bills ranks up there with a head cold: Nobody dies, but its a joyless experience that saps energy few have to spare.

To due a web site error at the News & Observer, the text for this article will be featured in tomorrow's clips page.

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Briefs: Officials, fraternity discuss house's fate

Nov. 1, 2003
The News & Observer
By staff report
 © Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

City officials held a meeting with representatives of the FarmHouse fraternity Friday to talk about the possibility of saving the former home of popular writer and gardener Elizabeth Larence, Mayor Charles Meeker said.

To due a web site error at the News & Observer, the text for this article will be featured in tomorrow's clips page.

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Opinion: The imbalance in trade: workers' rights

Nov. 2, 2003
The News & Observer
By Michael Schwalbe
 © Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.

How long I asked, have you and your dad been selling furniture at the flea market ?

To due a web site error at the News & Observer, the text for this article will be featured in tomorrow's clips page.

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Letter: With this evidence, any parent would choose vouchers