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New rental rules, policies suggested
A Raleigh task force's recommendations include licensing and districts that limit homes for rent
All thankful
for turkey prices
Thanksgiving - Growers, grocers, shoppers
New rental
rules, policies suggested
A Raleigh task force's recommendations include licensing and districts that
limit homes for rent
Veterans
Day activities
Veterans Day activities
Veterans
Day Events Scheduled
A number of events are planned Tuesday in honor of Veterans Day.
Found
money is N.C.'s
Agencies unaware cash theirs to take
UNC alone
in efforts to raise cap
Leave it to UNC-Chapel Hill to stir things up.
Former
Ag Commissioner Phipps Makes Deal With Prosecutors, Avoids Federal Trial
Cites Andy Taylor, associate professor, Political Science
Chapel
Hill cool to transit merger
Town officials didn't say "no" Monday to merging Chapel Hill Transit
with other bus systems in the Triangle, but they expressed a lot more doubt
than enthusiasm about the idea.
Victim
Killed By Alleged Stalker May Have Been Concerned About Safety
Warrant Shows Amena Khan Had Gun, Documented Run-Ins With Alleged Stalker
Letter
to the Editor: Well-deserved boost
Regarding your Nov. 6 article "Basnight pushes aquarium deal"
Battling
the bugs - Apple growers seek new, safer weapons
cites entomologist Jim Walgenbach
Panel:
Cloning Conclusion Premature
Dennis Wages, farm animal health and management
New rental rules, policies suggested
Nov. 11, 2003
The News & Observer
By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
RALEIGH -- A year ago, city officials and neighborhood activists were just beginning to debate a proposal to cut the number of unrelated roommates who could live in a house, duplex or townhouse from four to two, an idea that later was denounced by dozens at a public hearing.
The City Council had to weigh an unpopular proposal against worries that neighborhoods were declining because too many homes were turned into rentals. It set up a task force to look for alternatives.
Now, council members have just begun to mull over that task force's recommendations. They will start to debate it in December when new council members take their seats.
Recommendations include requiring licenses for landlords who lease single-family homes and duplexes, and setting up a system by which neighborhoods could limit the amount of rental housing. Those ideas, among others, immediately sparked opposition from the Triangle Apartment Association, which criticized the report when it was delivered to council last month.
"I think there's some things that are going to be easy to agree on and make some progress," said council member Janet Cowell, who originally pushed to set up the task force. "And there are others that there's going to be additional public input and debate."
The task force's 22-page report says the city should support the "core value of homeownership" and recognize its benefit to the community.
The recommendations include:
* Requiring the licensing of single-family homes, non-owner-occupied duplexes and single-family homes converted to apartments.
* Establishing "neighborhood preservation overlay districts" that limit the amount of homes for rent in a specific neighborhood to no more than 20 percent. Residents would have to ask the city for the special designation.
* Consolidating city codes and ordinances so city inspectors and police can work together better.
* Coordinating efforts with colleges and universities and the city to address student housing needs.
* Educating tenants and landlords about the rules.
* Encouraging homeownership through special programs for city and state employees, financial incentives and low-interest loans.
"Everything in that report is valid, and everything in the report was studied, well thought out and researched," said Elizabeth Byrd, a task force member.
Byrd said a majority of the task force agreed with the recommendations. The group met weekly for six months as a group or in committee.
But not everybody agreed. The Triangle Apartment Association, which represents more than 80,000 units and had a representative on the task force, angered some when it delivered a report to council opposing many of the recommendations. It says licensing rental properties will add another layer of bureaucracy and says the neighborhood preservation overlay districts infringe on property rights.
"... Many of the issues can be addressed by working together to enforce existing laws and regulations in conjunction with landlord-tenant education," association officials wrote in a letter to the council.
Tom Stafford, vice chancellor for student affairs at N.C. State University and a task force member, also wrote of his concern about a clause in the report that asks the university to work with city inspectors on calls that involve students. N.C. State and city police already cooperate, Stafford said. But the university doesn't have the resources to assist with all housing or zoning issues.
In a report to council last month, city staffers outlined steps the city already is taking, could complete in the short-term or would need more time to accomplish to resolve some of the problems. It is developing training for landlords and a program alerting resident managers when police are called to a property. Officials say they could quickly assemble teams to review current ordinances and study existing fees and fines for violations.
But it would take longer to develop a licensing program and the neighborhood overlay district.
Cowell said it will likely be easy for the council to agree on increasing fees and merging databases so inspections and police can work better together. But other issues, such as a licensing system or the neighborhood overlay, will need more debate.
Newly elected council member Thomas Crowder helped lead the original proposal to reduce the number of unrelated roommates in a house and won his race last week, in part because of voters' frustration with the issue. Crowder, who supports licensure and limiting the amount of rentals in a neighborhood, is expected to take a central role in the debate.
"I think certainly the council understands that action needs to be taken," Cowell said. "And action will be taken."
Staff writer Sarah Lindenfeld Hall can be reached at 829-8983.
All thankful for turkey prices
Nov. 11, 2003
The News & Observer
By Dudley Price, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
The turkeys are the only losers this Thanksgiving.
With the holiday less than three weeks away, consumers are seeing the lowest retail prices in years for frozen turkeys.
And this fall, growers are finally seeing a rebound in wholesale prices, which earlier this year plummeted to their lowest level in five years.
"With the recent upturn in wholesale turkey prices and traditional retail discounting of whole turkeys, both consumers and producers should have a happy Thanksgiving," said Jimmy Randolph, director of the N.C. Poultry Federation, which represents the state's turkey producers and processors.
Supermarkets are able to pass along extra savings this year because a weak export market left suppliers with a huge supply of frozen turkeys, which retailers snapped up at lower-than-average prices, Randolph said. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average retail price for a whole frozen turkey was $1.01 a pound in August, the most recent month for which prices were available. A year earlier, the price was $1.26 a pound, nearly 20 percent more.
Shoppers are benefiting, too, from some traditional Thanksgiving cost-trimming, which keeps costs to consumers low even when farmers are able to charge more.
On Monday, Lowes Food was selling frozen turkeys starting at 79 cents a pound. The Harris Teeter in Raleigh's Cameron Village shopping center reduced the prices on frozen turkeys two weeks ago. A Harris Teeter brand turkey was reduced from $1.19 a pound to 69 cents a pound and a Butterball brand turkey was cut from $1.49 a pound to 99 cents a pound.
"I'm going to buy one regardless of the price," said Robert Kochersberger, an English professor at N.C. State University who was shopping in the store Friday. "It's a once-a-year thing, and turkey is what we always have at Thanksgiving."
Jeff Lowrance, a spokesman for Food Lion, said discounting frozen turkeys at the holidays is a way to attract customers who will buy other items for their holiday meal. Food Lion began discounting frozen turkeys several weeks ago, he said.
"If it's an item a customer can buy at a very good price, customers appreciate it and it's a good way to invite shoppers in to get all their Thanksgiving supplies," Lowrance said.
Jesse Grimes, a turkey specialist and poultry professor at N.C. State University, said many stores sell frozen turkeys at a loss during the holidays.
"I've seen ads where if you buy $100 in groceries, they'll give you a turkey, so they didn't make anything on that turkey," Grimes said.
Still, cheaper turkey should cut the cost of the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Each year, the American Farm Bureau Federation tracks the cost of a Thanksgiving meal for 10 people -- and a 16-pound gobbler is the biggest item on the survey menu. Last year's meal dropped to $34.56.
This year's survey hasn't been made yet, but bureau spokesman Mace Thornton said cheaper turkeys should push the cost down even further.
The lower turkey prices for most of this year can be traced to Russia, Mexico and some Asian countries, which banned turkey imports last year and much of this year after an outbreak of avian influenza.
The reduced demand caused wholesale prices to drop to their lowest level since 1998, according to the N.C. Department of Agriculture. Growers' profits dropped, too. But avian influenza is harmless to humans and affected only a few birds, and the bans were lifted in recent months, to the relief of Tar Heel farmers.
As the country's largest turkey producer, last year North Carolina produced 16.7 percent of the entire national turkey flock -- 45.5 million turkeys with a value of $429 million. Traditionally, about 15 percent of the state's turkeys are exported, making the bans particularly hard on both farmers and suppliers.
Carolina Turkeys has 2,500 employees and processes 600 million pounds of turkey annually, making it one of the largest processors in the country. This year the company, based in Mount Olive, cut production 10 percent. And Dan Blackshear, the company president, said that for the first time since the company was founded in 1986, employees got no raises.
Now, with exports increasing and beef prices rising, demand for turkeys is going up and prices are finally rising. According to the USDA, for most of the year, wholesale prices had been 8 percent to 9 percent below last year, but they rose 3 percent in October.
"Boneless, skinless breasts went from $1.18 to $1.80 [wholesale] in six weeks," Blackshear said. "That's strong."
So savor those leftovers; prices won't stay low for long.
Staff writer Dudley Price can be reached at 829-4525.
New rental rules, policies suggested
Nov. 11, 2003
News & Observer
By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Observer
RALEIGH -- A year ago, city officials and neighborhood activists were just beginning to debate a proposal to cut the number of unrelated roommates who could live in a house, duplex or townhouse from four to two, an idea that later was denounced by dozens at a public hearing.
The City Council had to weigh an unpopular proposal against worries that neighborhoods were declining because too many homes were turned into rentals. It set up a task force to look for alternatives.
Now, council members have just begun to mull over that task force's recommendations. They will start to debate it in December when new council members take their seats.
Recommendations include requiring licenses for landlords who lease single-family homes and duplexes, and setting up a system by which neighborhoods could limit the amount of rental housing. Those ideas, among others, immediately sparked opposition from the Triangle Apartment Association, which criticized the report when it was delivered to council last month.
"I think there's some things that are going to be easy to agree on and make some progress," said council member Janet Cowell, who originally pushed to set up the task force. "And there are others that there's going to be additional public input and debate."
The task force's 22-page report says the city should support the "core value of homeownership" and recognize its benefit to the community.
The recommendations include:
* Requiring the licensing of single-family homes, non-owner-occupied duplexes and single-family homes converted to apartments.
* Establishing "neighborhood preservation overlay districts" that limit the amount of homes for rent in a specific neighborhood to no more than 20 percent. Residents would have to ask the city for the special designation.
* Consolidating city codes and ordinances so city inspectors and police can work together better.
* Coordinating efforts with colleges and universities and the city to address student housing needs.
* Educating tenants and landlords about the rules.
* Encouraging homeownership through special programs for city and state employees, financial incentives and low-interest loans.
"Everything in that report is valid, and everything in the report was studied, well thought out and researched," said Elizabeth Byrd, a task force member.
Byrd said a majority of the task force agreed with the recommendations. The group met weekly for six months as a group or in committee.
But not everybody agreed. The Triangle Apartment Association, which represents more than 80,000 units and had a representative on the task force, angered some when it delivered a report to council opposing many of the recommendations. It says licensing rental properties will add another layer of bureaucracy and says the neighborhood preservation overlay districts infringe on property rights.
"... Many of the issues can be addressed by working together to enforce existing laws and regulations in conjunction with landlord-tenant education," association officials wrote in a letter to the council.
Tom Stafford, vice chancellor for student affairs at N.C. State University and a task force member, also wrote of his concern about a clause in the report that asks the university to work with city inspectors on calls that involve students. N.C. State and city police already cooperate, Stafford said. But the university doesn't have the resources to assist with all housing or zoning issues.
In a report to council last month, city staffers outlined steps the city already is taking, could complete in the short-term or would need more time to accomplish to resolve some of the problems. It is developing training for landlords and a program alerting resident managers when police are called to a property. Officials say they could quickly assemble teams to review current ordinances and study existing fees and fines for violations.
But it would take longer to develop a licensing program and the neighborhood overlay district.
Cowell said it will likely be easy for the council to agree on increasing fees and merging databases so inspections and police can work better together. But other issues, such as a licensing system or the neighborhood overlay, will need more debate.
Newly elected council member Thomas Crowder helped lead the original proposal to reduce the number of unrelated roommates in a house and won his race last week, in part because of voters' frustration with the issue. Crowder, who supports licensure and limiting the amount of rentals in a neighborhood, is expected to take a central role in the debate.
"I think certainly the council understands that action needs to be taken," Cowell said. "And action will be taken."
Nov. 11, 2003
News & Observer
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Observer
WAKE COUNTY
CEREMONY AND RUN: Reserve Officer Training Corps units at N.C. State
University will hold a memorial ceremony at 6:30 a.m. today at the university's
Bell Tower, preceded by an early morning Veterans Day Run. Units will gather
at Carmichael Gym at 5:45 a.m., and the run will begin at 6 a.m. For information
call Lt. Col. Michael J. Wawrzniak or Maj. Bill Medley at 515-2428.
PARADE AND CEREMONY: A Veterans Day parade will start in downtown Raleigh between 9:40 and 10 a.m. today. The 82nd Airborne Division and the N.C. National Guard will participate, and a flyover will be included. The parade will begin at the intersection of South Wilmington and Jones streets and will travel north to Lane Street, west to Salisbury Street, south to Edenton Street, then east past the Veterans Monument on Capitol Square. The parade will disband after turning north on South Wilmington Street.
After the parade, a ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. at the Veterans Monument on Capitol Square. The guest speaker will be retired Brig. Gen. Gary H. Pendleton. A patriotic concert by the Enloe High School Band will be held on the Capitol grounds immediately after the ceremony.
The Veterans Day events are free and open to the public. State parking lots will be open to the public. Information: 733-4994.
BREAKFAST: There will be a veterans breakfast from 8 to 10 a.m. Monday at the State Fairgrounds in the Jim Graham Building in Raleigh.
VETERANS DFAY ESSAY: Leesville Road Middle School students have participated in an essay contest about why the United States should honor veterans. Students will read their essays and pay tribute to veterans at a reception 7 p.m. today at Barnes & Noble, 8431 Brier Creek Parkway in Raleigh. Information: 484-9903.
JOHNSTON COUNTY
MEMORIAL SERVICE: The Johnston County Council of Veterans Organizations will have its annual Veterans Day ceremony at 11 a.m. today at the courthouse in Smithfield. The guest speaker will be retired Col. Walter J. Marm, Medal of Honor recipient. The South Johnston Junior ROTC color guard and Smithfield-Selma High School Band will participate. Information: 989-5067.
ORANGE COUNTY
OPEN HOUSE: The Orange County Veterans Service Office in Hillsborough will honor its veterans with an open house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at the Graham Building, 118 N. Churton St. All veterans of Orange County are encouraged to stop by for refreshments and to pick up information on veterans benefits. The public also is invited. Information: Lois Harvin-Ravin, veterans service officer, 245-2890; fax: 644-3342; or e-mail to: harvin-ravin@rtmx.net.
HILLSBOROUGH REMEMBRANCE: Downtown merchants and other organizations in Hillsborough will mount a World War II remembrance -- complete with RAF, U.S. Army, Navy and civilian re-enactors -- Saturday on Churton Street at the Orange County Historical Museum and in the municipal parking lot off West King Street. The event will honor World War II veterans and serve as an opportunity for young people to see what life was like on the home front.
There will be historical re-enactments, a commissary and a display of reproduced items, including canned goods and military patches. Volunteers will be "selling" war bonds, and there will be a presentation on dogs' service to the war effort. A 1940s movie and newsreels will play in the lower level of the museum. Merchants and residents in 1940s attire will get coffee and doughnuts from a USO tent on Churton Street. Visitors can hear big band music, check the ration board for their allotment of coupons, learn how to roll bandages, or look at vintage automobiles. Visitors are encouraged to dress in period clothing or uniforms.
The event will begin at 10 a.m. and continue throughout the day. For information, call Julia Williams at 245-0062.
STUDENTS HONOR VETERANS: C.W. Stanford Middle School will honor veterans of the community from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Veterans are asked to contact the school for an invitation. Call Wendy B. Nelms at 732-6121, ext. 223, or send e-mail to Wendy.Nelms@orange.k12.nc.us.
HARNETT COUNTY
PARADE: Veterans Day parade, 9 a.m. today in Angier.
GOLF TOURNAMENT: The Harnett County Veterans Memorial Park Fund-Raiser Golf Tournament is at 12:30 p.m. today at Pine Burr Golf Course in Lillington. Information: (910) 893-7574.
Nov. 11, 2003
WRAL-TV
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 wral.com
A number of events are planned Tuesday in honor of Veterans Day.
In Raleigh, members of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at North Carolina State University started the day with a run and a memorial ceremony at the bell tower.
A Veterans Day parade takes place in downtown Raleigh from 9:40 a.m. to 10 a.m. The parade starts at the intersection of South and Jones streets.
In Durham, a ceremony starts at 11 a.m. in Memorial Park.
Johnston County will hold a ceremony at the courthouse in Smithfield at 11 a.m.
Many Triangle agencies are operating on a holiday schedule in observance of Veterans Day. Federal and state offices are closed. That includes banks, post offices and public schools.
Nov. 11, 2003
The News & Observer
By Amy Gardner, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
State Treasurer Richard Moore likes to boast that his Web site has logged more than 1.2 million hits from people searching for unclaimed cash.
But North Carolina's top
money counters are not among them.
unclaimed cash
A sampling of state agencies due money:
* Department of Revenue: $102,157
* N.C. State University: $25,530
* Division of Medical Assistance (Medicaid): $9,774
* Department of Insurance: $8,935
* Governor's Crime Commission: $192
(DEPARTMENT OF THE STATE TREASURER)
SEE IF YOU'RE OWED
To find out if you are due money from the state's unclaimed property fund, go to www.nccash.com.
Cash-strapped state agencies are due at least $162,000 from the state's unclaimed property fund, an account that receives money from businesses that owe people they cannot find.
Most of the money that belongs to the state, more than $102,000, is owed to the Department of Revenue -- the agency that collects taxes.
Much smaller amounts are due to at least a dozen other state agencies. Among them are the Office of State Budget, which is owed $54.45; and the Office of the State Controller, which is due $222.69.
"Oh my," Controller Robert Powell said Monday when told that his own office is on the list. Powell is responsible for the state's bank accounts and for cutting its checks. "I did not realize that there is state money in the escheats fund."
The Escheat and Unclaimed Property Division holds unclaimed money until its rightful owner is found. The cash is often the result of forgotten utility deposits, bank accounts or stocks, or from checks that have not been cashed.
More than $600 million is in the fund, which is managed by the state treasurer. That's one reason Moore is in the midst of a publicity blitz to encourage North Carolinians to check his Web page to find out if any of it is theirs.
Plenty of people have responded. Moore delivered checks Ed McMahon-style across the state last month, when his office returned more than $3.8 million. Gov. Mike Easley, a confessed penny-pincher, even claimed $58 of his own money in the summer of 2002.
"I don't think it's bad for a governor to be frugal in these times," Easley spokeswoman Cari Boyce said.
Revenue Secretary Norris Tolson said he put his top financial officer on the case Monday to figure out why the department hadn't claimed its money and where it came from. The department has more than a dozen claims waiting for it, but one of them, worth $97,383, is particularly perplexing to Tolson.
Tolson guessed the money, turned in by a chemical company based in Richmond, is probably a payment for taxes that was never cashed. Checks get lost all the time, he said, but somebody should have discovered it.
"If we can get it and put it in the general fund, that pays for a couple of teachers," he said. "And that's what we're going to do because that's our mission."
Moore's office did send out a notice to 18 state agencies in April 2002 telling them about more than $305,000 in cash that was theirs. Not everyone responded, even with the state's budget woes.
Powell, the state controller, is figuring out how to prevent a repeat in the future, even though the dollar amounts are relatively small in a state with a $14.8 billion annual operating budget. He hopes to establish an automated system by which his office is notified whenever a state agency is owed money from the fund.
Powell has even asked Attorney General Roy Cooper for a legal opinion on whether the controller can collect the money on behalf of all agencies, then distribute it to its rightful owners.
"If there's money in the unclaimed property fund that belongs to the state of North Carolina, we need to secure it. It's just that simple," Powell said. "I don't see any humor in it at all."
Staff writer Amy Gardner can be reached at 829-8902.
UNC alone in efforts to raise cap
Nov. 11, 2003
Greensboro News & Record
By John Newsom, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Record
Leave it to UNC-Chapel Hill to stir things up.
The school started this year with another loud debate over its summer reading selection for freshmen. Now it wants to admit more of those freshmen from outside North Carolina.
The UNC system's Board of Governors limits out-of-state enrollment to 18 percent of a school's freshman class, a threshold UNC-CH has bumped into or exceeded each of the past six years.
UNC-Chapel Hill officials say its plan to let state schools set aside 22 percent of its freshman class seats for non-North Carolina residents will help the universities and the state. But some fear that increasing the cap will leave less room for the sons and daughters of North Carolina residents, who for years have given their tax dollars and supported requests for construction bond issues for the university system.
The Board of Governors is expected on Friday to consider the UNC-CH request. Though seven of the state's 16 public colleges are at or above the cap, support for the plan outside Chapel Hill seems lukewarm at best. Some state lawmakers, student government leaders and public school supporters have blasted the plan. And two Board of Governors members are floating a competing proposal that would keep the cap largely in place.
"It's a very hot issue," said Gladys Robinson, a Board of Governors member from Pleasant Garden who supports an alternate plan that would let individual schools lobby to exceed the cap. "And it's bad timing as well."
UNC-CH officials stress an increased cap will not mean fewer seats at the university for qualified North Carolina students.
In fact, it will mean more, said Jerry Lucido, UNC-CH's admissions director.
Over the next five to seven years, UNC-CH wants to expand its incoming classes by about 500 students. If the cap goes up to 22 percent -- the plan that UNC-CH is pushing -- the university would add roughly one spot for state residents for every two new seats for out-of-state students. These new out-of-state students would have to be what UNC-CH is calling "academically superior," which means they would have to have National Merit Scholarships or similar high-level academic honors.
UNC-CH's effort to raise the cap has little to do with academics, Lucido said.
About half of these out-of-state students who graduate stay in North Carolina, where they pay taxes and add brain power to the state's economy.
Bringing in more out-of-state students would make the university's student body more diverse and more worldly -- something that could help keep more of North Carolina's best and brightest at home, Lucido said.
This year, 1,559 in-state students turned down a UNC-CH admissions offer. Instead, about half of them went to college outside the state. The average SAT scores of those who turned down a spot at UNC-CH was 1,376 -- about 100 points above the freshman class average.
"The most frequent thing we hear from these students is that they want to go to a place with a more national student body," Lucido said. "And when we lose them from North Carolina, we lose them, period. They don't come back."
In short, Lucido said, the UNC-CH plan means everyone -- North Carolina residents, bright students from outside the state, the state as a whole -- wins.
"If we didn't think it was good for North Carolina," Lucido said, "we wouldn't push it."
But reaction outside of Chapel Hill has been mixed -- and much of it negative.
Not every university outside Chapel Hill seems to share UNC-CH's enthusiasm for changing the cap.
Four state universities were over the cap last fall. But even they and the state's other public universities seem content to let UNC-CH wage that battle on its own.
East Carolina University recruits heavily in Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey, and has been over the cap in four of the past six years. But leaders there have given no public support to UNC-CH in this fight. "It appears to be unpopular among significant sections of the General Assembly," said John Durham, the spokesman for the Greenville university. "We're happy to abide by whatever the Board of Governors decides."
UNCG, which has seen a steady decline in recent years in its percentage of out-of-state students, is watching this debate from the sidelines. Only 9.5 percent of its incoming class came from outside North Carolina this fall, and UNCG leaders say they do not expect to bump against the 18 percent cap anytime soon.
Even N.C. A&T, which is one of two schools in the UNC system with an exemption, is neutral on the issue.
A&T got a Board of Governors waiver in 2002 for its engineering program, which is one of three such programs at a public university in the state. A&T is also one of the few historically black colleges in the country with a high-powered engineering program. Its undergraduate program traditionally has produced more African American engineers than any other college in the nation.
The waiver lets A&T admit as many out-of-state students to its engineering program as it wants as long as no more than 18 percent of the remaining students come from out of state. About 55 percent of A&T's new engineering students this fall are nonresidents.
A&T makes the same argument as UNC-CH. But it is not joining the UNC-CH lobbying efforts.
"The strength of the UNC system is that each institution is unique," A&T Provost Carolyn Meyers said. "We feel that it's not up to us to determine another institution's aspirations."
Elsewhere, the UNC Association of Student Governments, an advocacy group made up of the 16 university student body presidents, voted last month to oppose raising the cap. Jonathan Ducote, the group's president and a senior at N.C. State, said the student government leaders are concerned about how the public and the legislature might react. It was public support for the 2000 higher education bond issue, after all, that is letting state universities add $2.5 billion in facilities.
"They're worried about the public perception of the university system," Ducote said. "Students didn't think it was prudent to cause a rift."
Dara Edelman, president of UNCG's student government association, voted against a cap change partly because it might wind up hurting UNCG.
"UNCG is a second choice for a lot of out-of-state students" after UNC-CH and N.C. State, she said. If UNC-CH has more out-of-state seats available, she added, "I fear that we would lose those top students."
The Board of Governors has the final say on revising the cap, and the group seems split. Shortly after the UNC-CH plan made its way to the Board of Governors, two members from the Charlotte area put together an alternate proposal. Instead of raising the cap at all campuses right away, the alternate plan would require universities to plead their cases individually to the board like A&T did when it got its engineering exemption.
Contact John Newsom at 373-7312 or jnewsom@news-record.com
NORTH CAROLINA'S OUT-OF-STATE
STUDENTS Here are the percentages of first-year students who came from outside
North Carolina and enrolled in one of the 16 schools in the state university
system in the fall of 2002. A Board of Governors policy approved in 1986 limits
nonresident students to 18 percent of an incoming class. Schools that go over
that 18 percent cap for two consecutive years risk losing some state money.
The N.C. School of the Arts is exempted from the Board of Governors policy.
N.C. A&T has a waiver that exempts its engineering program, but it still
must comply with the cap with its remaining freshmen.
N.C. School of the Arts 63.5
N.C. A&T 22.6
East Carolina 20.9
Elizabeth City State 19.4
N.C. Central 17.8
UNC-Asheville 17.8
UNC-Chapel Hill 17.7
UNC-Wilmington 15.7
Appalachian State 13.6
UNC-Charlotte 12.6
UNCG 12.5
Western Carolina 11.8
Fayetteville State 10.7
N.C. State 10.5
Winston-Salem State 10.5
UNC-Pembroke 8.6
Entire UNC system 15.6
Former Ag Commissioner Phipps Makes Deal With Prosecutors, Avoids Federal Trial
Nov. 10, 2003
WRAL
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 WRAL.
Andy Taylor, associate professor of political science, spoke about the Meg Scott Phipps trial.
Chapel Hill cool to transit merger
Nov. 11, 2003
Durham Herald-Sun
By Rob Shapard , staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Herald-Sun
CHAPEL HILL -- Town officials didn't say "no" Monday to merging Chapel Hill Transit with other bus systems in the Triangle, but they expressed a lot more doubt than enthusiasm about the idea.
In the end, the consensus among Town Council members was that they wanted more information and, for now, to continue being a part of the discussion.
The debate about a merged transit system ramped up this summer, after a consultant hired by the mayors of Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Cary recommended a target date of 2007 for the merger to take effect.
The plan would combine the Durham Area Transit Authority, Chapel Hill Transit, Capital Area Transit in Raleigh, the C-Tran in Cary and the Wolfline system at N.C. State University into a consolidated system operated by the Triangle Transit Authority.
"At this stage of the game, we need to be a player," Councilman Jim Ward said Monday night.
The Town Council also asked Town Manager Cal Horton to report back about the areas in which Chapel Hill might be able to cooperate more with other systems and the TTA. One example would be working with the other systems to buy equipment and supplies, which drew some comment Monday.
But the Town Council didn't go as far as the leaders of Durham, Cary and Raleigh have in directing their staffs to pursue consolidation with the TTA.
Council members said they worried in part that the town would not be able to respond quickly in changing local bus routes if Chapel Hill Transit became part of a combined system. They also wondered if other systems could meet the Chapel Hill system's standards of flexibility and its fare-free status.
"The main question is how can this enhance what we already have," Councilwoman Pat Evans said. "Would TTA be anywhere close to as responsive as we are? I really have my doubts.
"We are not in need of someone helping us build a strong system, because we already have a strong system," she added later.
Still, Councilwoman Edith Wiggins said she didn't want Chapel Hill to "turn its back" on the other cities by saying it wasn't interested in the idea or by taking an "arrogant" approach toward the other bus systems.
"We should not close the door at this point," Wiggins said. "I would just hate to see us not participate in something that's regional."
UNC and Carrboro help pay for the Chapel Hill Transit system, and according to UNC Police Chief Derek Poarch, a university committee shares some of the council's concerns about how responsive bus service would be in a merged system.
Mayor Kevin Foy has expressed support for the idea, but he said Monday that the town might consider working with the TTA and other systems without being a "full partner" in a merged system.
Victim Killed By Alleged Stalker May Have Been Concerned About Safety
Nov. 10, 2003
WRAL-TV; NBC-17; Associated Press
By Julia Lewis, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
DURHAM, N.C. -- Authorities have uncovered more information about a murder-suicide in Durham that started as a stalking case at North Carolina State University. There are signs the victim may have been concerned about her safety.
According to a search warrant, Amena Khan had a gun and documented her run-ins with a former classmate who was allegedly stalking her.
In a letter, 23-year-old Amena Khan told N.C. State police that classmate Najebullah Naimee was harassing her and later began stalking her. She told them he had grabbed her arm and had called her incessantly.
Last Thursday, both were found dead in her apartment. Police say Naimee shot and killed Khan before turning the gun on himself.
A search warrant shows Naimee was armed with a 9 mm baretta and two magazines with 16 bullets. Police also found a letter on Khan's computer addressed "To whom it may concern." In it, she documented the run-ins she had with Naimee.
One of her friends told WRAL Khan talked about Naimee, calling him crazy. In March, Khan reminded friends that he would not leave her alone, but she also told them she didn't think he would hurt her. Khan and her husband also recently had a security system installed at their apartment.
Police, though, found no evidence of any recent contact, and family members said Khan had not mentioned Naimee in a while. They believe she may have thought the stalking was over.
Khan was getting ready to move to Minnesota to be with her husband. Police said they found her suitcase in the house half-packed.
Letter to the Editor: Well-deserved boost
Nov. 11, 2003
The News & Observer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Regarding your Nov. 6 article
"Basnight pushes aquarium deal":
Not only is tourism one of the largest industries in North Carolina, coastal
communities depend on it. Expanding aquariums, therefore, is good for the economy.
Expansion of the N.C. Aquarium in Pine Knoll Shores is a particular case in
point.
The facts clearly show that this plan will pay off for North Carolina:
• The expansion will create about 190 jobs, according to an economic analysis by N.C. State University economist Mike Walden.
• The project will generate an additional $6.1 million in annual economic impact in an area that cannot develop a strong industrial base.
• Annual visitation at the aquarium will grow by more than 45 percent, boosting North Carolina's tourism industry and region's economy.
The legislature approved funding several years ago to expand North Carolina's aquariums. Renovations to two of the three aquariums have already been completed, while the funds for Pine Knoll Shores were diverted to aid recovery from Hurricane Floyd.
Recognizing the state's budget constraints, local and state officials and aquarium supporters worked together to come up with a business plan to pay for the renovations without using new state money. The financing plan, using a loan to be repaid by aquarium admissions fees, includes strong safeguards to protect against loan defaults. The state Treasurer's Office, the Attorney General's Office, the state Property Office and the state Construction Office have all been involved in developing and reviewing this plan.
Those who came up with this responsible solution should be applauded for their entrepreneurial approach in expanding such an important asset of our tourism industry.
Joe Barwick
Chairman of the Board
Carteret County Chamber of Commerce
Morehead City
Nov. 14, 2003
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Jamilah Evelyn, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Just past noon on a dreary fall day, Walter Waller sits in an oak-paneled, fluorescent-lit room that once served as a break area for workers at a now-defunct textile factory.
The former employee of the Pillowtex Corporation, laid off in July along with some 4,500 others just before the manufacturer of bed linens shut its doors, sits with his back straight up against a blue plastic chair and stares blankly into the face of Becky Hammill. A counselor at nearby Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, Ms. Hammill is leading a workshop called "Taking the Fear Out of the GED." She asks Mr. Waller if he knows "what the G-E-D stands for?"
Without waiting for a response, Ms. Hammill explains in her soothing drawl that the general-equivalency diploma is made up of five parts -- reading, writing, science, social studies, and math. Mr. Waller, clutching tight to a lime-yellow handout, looks a little disheartened as Ms. Hammill points out that the amount of time it will take to earn the certification will depend on each student's skill level.
"I just want to get my GED and go on back home," says Mr. Waller, frustrated.
After more than three decades of service at the factory that anchored this town some 30 miles north of Charlotte for the better part of the last century, Mr. Waller is faced with a decision he never saw coming at age 62. With his limited skills, he can take his chances finding another high-wage job in a segment of the economy that is quickly disappearing. Or he can try his luck in an education system that eluded him long ago.
State officials are hoping that Mr. Waller and many of his former co-workers will choose to go back to school. North Carolina has doled out $2.5-million -- from more than $20-million in emergency federal grants secured in the wake of the Pillowtex layoffs, the largest in state history -- to Rowan-Cabarrus and two other community colleges to help retrain the former mill workers.
The colleges have their work cut out for them. Nearly half of those who were laid off lacked a high-school diploma. Rowan-Cabarrus, which serves the area where most of the former Pillowtex people live, has enrolled 1,300 of the laid-off workers since the shutdown was announced last summer. About 200 of them chose programs that will retrain them for other industries, like automotive and industrial-machine repair, or to work in health care. The rest, some 1,100 people, are taking basic-skills courses, such as preparation for the GED and English as a second language. Though statewide figures are not available, officials say that by the time many workers finish those prerequisites for community-college enrollment, some will be running low on the roughly two years they are allotted for federal unemployment benefits, leaving them unable to complete a training program for another job.
Although the 59-college system here was founded to educate the state's work force, some labor experts say that the two-year colleges have failed to provide enough short-term training programs, do not know which jobs to train dislocated workers for, and are allotted funds from the state in a way that makes it difficult for them to do more. Furthermore, few workers are equipped to deal with the mound of paperwork they must fill out before they can even enroll in a community college.
"There are just too many kinks in the system," says Graham E. Watt, a senior policy associate at the state's Commission on Workforce Development, which is part of the North Carolina Department of Commerce. "If we don't get them ironed out, we will leave a whole generation of workers behind."
North Carolina's is not the only community-college system struggling to live up to the retraining part of its mission. Throughout the South and Midwest, in particular, many white- and blue-collar jobs are vanishing. Community colleges in Georgia, Florida, Ohio, and Michigan are struggling to retrain displaced workers. While white-collar workers tend to have broader educational backgrounds, and can often readjust their skills, many blue-collar workers are left without many job options. Community colleges, with their history of success with adult students, are expected to retrain them for emerging industries.
But community colleges are finding the task daunting: How do you tell third-generation factory workers without a highschool diploma that college is worth their time and effort?
"Mill towns really have their own subculture, and it's extremely hard for higher-education to infiltrate it," says George B. Vaughan, a professor of adult and community-college education at North Carolina State University, whose father worked in a textile mill all his life. "Had he been laid off, my father would have died or gone on to some other blue-collar work before he considered going back to school."
One-Stop Center
A musky odor hits you as soon as you walk in the door to what is still referred to as Plant Four. The state's Emergency Services Commission set up a one-stop center at the plant where former Pillowtex workers can apply for unemployment and other benefits, get computer access, check out job referrals, and learn about training programs.
Just to the left of the main entrance is the closet-size room where a handful of Rowan-Cabarrus counselors sit behind a rectangular table. Most people idle in the doorway for a few seconds, scanning the faces that smile back at them and the handwritten posters on the wall that promise "a new life through educational opportunities at RCCC" and that the institution will "take the fear out of starting college."
John D. Spears, a 57-year-old wearing a black baseball cap, dusty black sneakers, and an Army-fatigue shirt, lingers for a second with his hands in his pockets and then asks, "What's this about taking the GED?"
Lori Lambert, a Rowan-Cabarrus counselor, explains that Mr. Spears could sign up today to take a placement test in about a week. For those who pass the GED test, the college offers many training programs. For Mr. Spears, she suggests industrial-systems technology, in which the college has a certificate program where students learn to repair industrial equipment.
"Whatever," he replies, grabbing a piece of candy from the table before leaving with an appointment card that reminds him he is scheduled to take the GED program's placement test in a week.
Mr. Spears was making good money at the plant, pulling in more than $15 an hour -- or just under $30,000 a year, plus lots of overtime -- for fixing looms. He dropped out of high school in 1964 just before completing his senior year because "back then, you just went to work in the mill, that's all," he says. "I went to school on those machines I learned to operate."
He remains skeptical about the value and accessibility of an education. He came to Plant Four to check on acquiring health-insurance benefits, but says he was told that the $407 a week he was getting in unemployment made him ineligible for much assistance.
"They won't help me out with something as basic as insurance, why would they help me go to school?" he asks.
When informed that he could take general-equivalency classes -- and others at the college -- free, he pauses and takes a drag on his Winston cigarette. "I don't need no GED to change that tire right there," Mr. Spears says, pointing at his Chevy pickup truck in the parking lot.
As he sees it, "there just aren't any jobs around here where I will make the same kind of money I was making before."
He may be right. College officials say that even with retraining, it will take a few years on the job before the former workers will earn as much as they were making at the mill. And that's if they get a job. Unemployment in Rowan and Cabarrus Counties was 12.2 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively, in August.
Mr. Spears's situation is typical. Some 45 percent of the Pillowtex workers who were laid off did not finish high school. Most of them worked in the mills all of their adult lives. They barely had to even fill out an application to get the job, so the amount of red tape they now go through just to get unemployment benefits is dizzying.
Few of these workers can deal with the thought of starting over. Many are consumed with securing enough money and other benefits just to make it day to day. They would rather get by on odd jobs or flip burgers, even at a fraction of their former pay, than go to college. But even Burger King now requires its employees to have a general-equivalency diploma, or at least be working on one.
While Mr. Spears admits that a retraining program at the college might get him a job at close to his previous wage, "at my age, school just isn't in the cards."
Bursting at the Seams
Rowan-Cabarrus is making some headway. Officials say that within a year, they hope to enroll nearly half, or some 2,000, of the former Pillowtex employees in either basic skills or occupational programs like machining and electronics. The college had already completed most of registration for the fall semester before the layoffs were announced, so state and college officials had little time this fall to find ways to accommodate the workers in the class schedule.
The two-year college is already bursting at the seams. Enrollment has grown some 14 percent since last year. After the layoffs, college officials had to lease new facilities, hire new instructors, and purchase new instructional equipment with some of the state aid it received to accommodate the 20- to 25-percent growth the former workers accounted for in continuing-education programs.
"We just didn't have the time or the room to act as fast as we would have liked to," says Jeanie Moore, vice president for continuing education at Rowan-Cabarrus.
The college did manage to start special 14-week sessions in some occupational programs like heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning repair, and industrial machining. For other displaced workers who aren't sure they want to actually enroll in a program, the college has offered workshops in financial management, résumé building, and interviewing skills, which helps it establish a much-needed rapport with the workers.
"Once they get in those workshops, we're finding that many of them just want to vent," says Ms. Lambert. "We're finding if we lend them an ear, give them some respect, they are much more likely to come back to inquire about our other offerings."
Rowan-Cabarrus is already ahead of the pack compared with other community colleges in the state in terms of enrolling laid-off workers. Typically, North Carolina community colleges enroll roughly 20 percent of the workers in any given layoff, according to the state's Department of Commerce. For the Pillowtex closing, Rowan-Cabarrus has already enrolled 29 percent, and is aiming to serve about 50 percent of the former workers.
The $2.1-million federal emergency grant the college received has gone a long way toward helping it reach that goal. But it is the first such grant for a community college in a state that has lost some 50,000 jobs in manufacturing alone since 1999.
"There's no doubt, when you're talking about an influx of 2,000 students, we would not have been able to serve them without that federal money," says Jerry Chandler, senior vice president of the 23,000-student college. Roughly 18,000 of those students are enrolled in the college's continuing-education programs, an indication of their heavy emphasis on worker training.
Other colleges in the state have been forced to absorb displaced workers without immediate federal assistance. The state also reimburses two-year colleges for students a year after they start taking classes, well after the colleges must accommodate the former workers. In a recent study of displaced workers done by Mr. Watt at the North Carolina Department of Commerce, state officials bemoaned the fact that the colleges must wait so long to get their state appropriations.
"It limits them," says Mr. Watt, "at a time when their budgets are already stretched." State appropriations to North Carolina's community colleges have been cut by roughly 5 percent in the last few years. Nationwide, community colleges have seen their state appropriations shrink by anywhere from 2 to 10 percent.
Mr. Watt's report goes on to note that the colleges receive fewer dollars for continuing-education programs that help displaced workers than they do for credit or transfer courses for more-traditional students. That limits their ability to provide quick retraining courses in expensive emerging technology fields. If community colleges are unable to retrain workers for such fields, it will limit the state's ability to attract new industries to replace the dying textile, manufacturing, and furniture sectors that have played a large role in the economy.
"That's a real problem across the country," says North Carolina State's Mr. Vaughan, who himself worked overnight shifts at a Virginia textile mill to help pay his way through college. It's also "a heavy burden for community colleges to shoulder," he says. "Essentially, they need more state and federal support in order to get the job done."
Work First
Federal assistance already plays a big role in retraining workers. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which Congress is reviewing as part of the reauthorization process, provides the bulk of the funds that enable displaced workers to go to college after they find themselves unemployed.
One problem college leaders find with the law, known as WIA, is that it encourages officials to first try to place workers in jobs. If that is unsuccessful, only then are they referred to community-college training programs.
"There has not been an enforcement of sending the Pillowtex people back to school," says Ms. Moore. "People are encouraged to wait and assess their own personal situation." That doesn't leave college officials in the best position to determine the workers' needs and come up with programs that would best serve them.
Even then, funds for tuition are only approved if a worker comes up with a plan that he or she can complete in two years. Often, what looks manageable on paper does not always work out in reality. If students run into a roadblock -- problems with their car or with day care for their children, for instance -- they may not complete their courses according to their original plan.
Mr. Watt's study found that many dislocated workers quit their training programs when their unemployment benefits dried up, which led him to conclude that the colleges were not tailoring enough of the training programs to fit the workers' time frame.
Stephanie Deese, director of work-force initiatives for the North Carolina Community College System, disagrees with that finding, noting the programs that Rowan-Cabarrus put together after the Pillowtex layoffs.
"We offer 1,500 continuing-education programs, available at a moment's notice," she says of the state's two-year colleges. "That was a fine report for the time, but it was just a snapshot."
The bigger barrier, she says, is helping workers take the fear out of going to college after having been out of the education system for so many decades. "There are some intangibles," she says. "We try our best to reach out to these people but sure, we won't be able to convince everyone."
A No-Show
Count Mr. Waller, from the workshop, among the convinced. He is currently taking GED-preparation courses at the college. He says he hopes to pass the test before the college's spring semester starts in January and then go on to a certificate program that will enable him to work in social services.
"I want to help people," he says. "God only knows where I'd be if it wasn't for the help I've gotten throughout this whole mess. I'd like to give back."
As for Mr. Spears, repeated attempts to follow up with him were unsuccessful. College officials say they have no record of him showing up to take the GED placement examination for which he was scheduled.
Battling the bugs - Apple growers seek new, safer weapons
Nov. 11, 2003
Maryville Daily Times, TN; Environmental News Network, CA; High Plains Journal, KS; Lakeland Ledger, FL; Wilmington Morning Star, NC; Wichita Eagle, KS; Bradenton Herald, FL; Penn Live, PA; Fort Wayne News Sentinel, IN; Times Daily, AL Times Daily, AL; Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX; Atlanta Journal Constitution, GA; Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL; Biloxi Sun Herald, MS; ABC News; Akron Beacon Journal, OH; Springfield News Sun, OH; Providence Journal Bulletin, RI; Detroit News, MI; MLive.com, MI; Newsday; Boston Globe; Seattle Times; Portland Oregonian; Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal; Kansas City Star
By Mary Esch, Associated Press
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
BURNT HILLS, N.Y. -- From the time the buds swell until the boughs sag with apples, Jerry Knight uses an arsenal of chemicals -- about two dozen in all -- to curb mites, maggots, leafrollers and other invaders.
Knight, a third-generation grower, has seen the selection of weapons shift over the last 40 years from chlorinated hydrocarbons such as DDT, banned in the United States in 1972, to an array of organophosphates derived from the nerve gas of World War II.
Today, the shape of things to come is evident in an assortment of sticky red spheres, yellow strips, orange twist-ties and white paper tents dangling from branches in Knight's orchard. They are traps and lures, designed to monitor insect populations or disrupt mating.
Growers are using the tools as part of a new, more narrowly targeted war on bugs, as regulators and consumers press for reductions in the use of broad-spectrum pesticides that pose ecological and health risks.
Knight's 100-acre orchard in Burnt Hills, 20 miles northwest of Albany, is one of several dozen participating in a five-year, seven-state study of integrated pest management, or IPM, for apples and peaches. It's funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program, or RAMP.
Besides New York, researchers and growers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan and Virginia are participating in the RAMP study.
For almost 40 years, growers have relied on organophosphate insecticides such as Guthion and Imidan to control pests. But use of organophosphates is likely to be sharply restricted.
The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review all pesticides under guidelines that place special emphasis on foods eaten by children -- with apples at the top of the list. The first group of pesticides being reviewed is the organophosphates, followed by carbamates and pyrethroids.
IPM programs for apples are probably the most complex of all crop programs, said Art Agnello, a Cornell University entomologist who is one of the RAMP study's principal investigators.
That's because of the large variety of pests and diseases afflicting tree fruits, the long growing season, the long life of trees compared to annual field crops, and the inability to rotate orchard crops.
Many growers use an IPM approach with traditional broad-spectrum pesticides, tailoring their spraying program to reduce the amount of chemicals used and avoid killing beneficial insects.
"IPM is more effective and less expensive than traditional methods because it involves making applications with better timing at the right rates,'' said Walter Blackler of Apple Acres orchard near Syracuse. "We used to spray according to the calendar. Now, we scout for insects, use traps, monitor weather and spray only when indicated.''
The RAMP study focuses on new, highly selective pesticides, also called soft pesticides, and mating disruption through the use of pheromones, or insect sex attractants. Researchers will evaluate effectiveness and costs, and develop manuals to explain complex IPM strategies to growers.
In 2002, the first year of the study, the effectiveness was similar for the two approaches in New York orchards, Agnello said. Costs for standard spraying programs averaged about $150 per acre, compared with about $200 per acre for the RAMP program, he said.
"We recommended a program that was more rigorous than necessary, rather than risk damage to an orchard,'' Agnello said.
As the phaseout of broad-spectrum products allows predator insects to flourish, growers should be able to reduce the use of the costly new pesticides, Agnello said. But he acknowledged the complexity and cost of the lower-risk methods could be the last straw for growers already struggling to make a profit.
Entomologist Larry Hull of Pennsylvania State University said he's finding the new products work as well as the old ones, but cost twice as much.
Michigan researcher Larry Gut said the alternative program wasn't as effective as traditional spraying last year, and costs two to three times as much.
"There are some critical pests for which the alternatives are not performing,'' said Gut, an entomologist at Michigan State University. "I have 15 sites, and maybe three of those have seen substantial loss of fruit.''
The toughest pests are the coddling moth and apple maggot, whose larvae feed inside the apple. The most effective pesticides kill on contact. But the new pesticides kill after ingestion, and it's hard to get larvae to eat a lethal dose before burrowing into the fruit, Gut said.
In North Carolina, researchers have had success managing pests with the new strategies, said entomologist Jim Walgenbach of North Carolina State University. But he said some pests that hadn't been seen in many years, such as apple maggot and Comstock mealybug, re-emerged when organophosphates were discontinued.
"Over time, we'll be able to develop systems that are economically sound as well as effective,'' he said. "But it won't happen overnight. It's a race to find an economical IPM approach before OPs are phased out.''
Panel: Cloning Conclusion Premature
Nov. 11, 2003
Newsday
By Earl Lane, staff report
© Copyright 2003 Newsday, Inc.
Rockville, Md.
While the Food and Drug Administration has found that food products from animal clones or their offspring appear safe to eat and the clones themselves not unduly at risk of poor health, members of an agency advisory panel expressed doubts last week about the adequacy of the supporting data.
Members of the Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee said during a public meeting that the FDA had done a good job of weighing the available information in its draft risk assessment. But citing the limited number of studies, some of them involving small numbers of animals, many of the specialists said it was too soon to draw firm conclusions.
Asked by the FDA if the agency had adequately identified the health hazards for cloned livestock animals, Dennis Wages, a North Carolina State University veterinarian, said, "It's difficult to answer the question 'yes' with the data we've been given."
John McGlone, a professor of animal science at Texas Tech University, also answered no, saying that "we don't know enough about the risks to animal health."
Panel members generally were more satisfied that the FDA had adequately characterized the risks in eating food from animal clones. But several were unwilling to offer their unqualified approval.
"I didn't see where the data began to lead me to a confident answer," said Marguerite Pappaioanou, a veterinarian and public health epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The FDA has released an 11-page executive summary of its risk assessment and is preparing the entire document, expected to be about 250 to 300 pages long, for release later. The summary concluded that "edible products from normal, healthy clones or their progeny do not appear to pose increased food consumption risks relative to comparable products from conventional animals."
At issue is the fledgling business of producing many genetic copies of prize cattle and other farm animals by a cloning process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. The process uses an adult cell, such as a skin cell, from the donor animal to provide the DNA for insertion into an egg whose own DNA-containing nucleus has been removed. The egg, when implanted into a uterus, can grow to term and produce an animal that is essentially identical to the donor animal. The success rate for the process remains low, with many embryo clones spontaneously aborted.
Producing clones is expensive, about $20,000 per animal by some accounts, and critics say there is little need for such techniques, given the ample availability of beef and other products from conventional herds. While costs should come down, clones are likely to be used initially as breeding stock to improve the genetic quality of herds, specialists said.
The health risks for the animal clones seem higher in cattle and sheep, compared to swine and goats, the FDA analysis said. Cattle and sheep clones that do survive often are larger than normal at birth, at least 20 percent heavier than the average birth weight for the breed. Many animals have excess fluid in their organs or placentas and difficult births are not uncommon.
Still, the FDA said clones that survive beyond a few weeks "appear to become as healthy as their normal counterparts" as they grow and develop.
In making its case for the safety of food products from clones, the FDA noted that any malformed, diseased or otherwise unhealthy animals would be quickly culled from the herd.
As for more subtle hazards, the FDA took a two-pronged analytical approach. It assumed that an obviously healthy animal is likely to produce safe food products. And it assumed that products from healthy animal clones are safe to eat if the food composition is not materially different from similar products derived from noncloned animals.
That said, the risk analysis admits that "information on the composition of clone meat or milk is extremely limited." Larisa Rudenko, a senior adviser in the FDA's Office of New Animal Drug Evaluation, said that until this fall there had been no peer-reviewed studies on the composition of meat or milk from animal clones. A new study has looked at milk composition from 17 cattle clones, including levels of total fat, nitrogen, fatty acids and various elements in the milk. It found the composition similar to that of milk from noncloned animals, Rudenko said.
Rudenko said she was unaware of any studies in which meat or milk from clones had been fed to lab animals to assess the possible effects. She questioned whether such studies would be useful when no potentially toxic agent in the food has been identified.
One of the problems in gathering more data is simply the lack of animals for large-scale studies. By most estimates there are only a few hundred farm animal clones in existence.
Studies on clone progeny - animals with at least one clone as a parent - also are difficult since the industry has not been breeding many progeny of clones until it is clear that food products from such animals will be accepted by the FDA and consumers. The industry has voluntarily agreed not to put food products from animal clones or their offspring on the market until the safety issues are resolved.
Rudenko said the FDA risk assessment benefited by the decision of Cyagra Inc., a leading cloning company, to give the agency detailed health data on 134 cattle clones and 85 conventionally bred animals as controls. Other available studies typically involve far fewer animals, in some cases only a handful.
Of the 134 Cyagra cattle clones, 28 were stillborn, died or euthanized within 48 hours. Eleven more died within the first 180 days. Among the newborn clones, standard laboratory blood tests showed a 90 percent comparability to test results from nonclone newborns. By the time the clones were 6 to 18 months old, the blood-work values were 99 percent comparable, according to Eric Dubbin, an FDA veterinarian who discussed the results. "The older they get, the more stable the blood work," he said.
The FDA risk assessment found that while cloning can pose a higher frequency of health risk to animals involved in the process, the problems do not differ in quality from those seen in animals born via other assisted reproduction methods such as in vitro (test tube) fertilization.
Richard Wood, a food safety advocate and consumer representative on the advisory committee, said he was concerned about using animals born by other assisted reproduction methods as a benchmark for clones rather than animals bred conventionally.
Critics also questioned whether the FDA has paid enough attention to the possibility that the stress of subtle developmental problems in clones might affect food safety indirectly. Michael Hansen, a senior research associate for the Consumer Policy Institute - an arm of Consumers Union - mentioned possible increased shedding of pathogens in the animals' fecal material, producing a higher load of undesirable microbes in the carcass. Hansen also called for much more data on the frequency of illness in clones vs. nonclones since, he said, clones may have weaker immune systems.
FDA officials said the public will be able to comment on the full draft risk assessment when it is released. The agency also is expected to produce a document by next spring on the potential options for marketing of food from animal clones or their offspring.