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RIAA action arrives
UNC-CH, NCSU receive subpoenas
Bargains
will be scarcer
Retailers hope that big markdowns won't be needed to keep the merchandise
moving
Moore
pushes N.C.'s funds
Wants reforms from companies managing 401(k) plans
Limits
put on China textiles
Restriction to cap growth of imports at 7.5 percent
NC State
Scientists Design a New Transistor
When amazing new computers and other electronic devices emerge, they will
have been conceived and incubated in university laboratories like that of
Dr. Chris Gorman, professor of chemistry at North Carolina State University.
Renewable
energy effort faces hurdles
`Green' programs seek support of legislators, utilities, customers
Combs
gets visit from author
Combs Elementary School had a special visitor Thursday: leadership expert
and author Stephen Covey.
Durant
athletics director injured
Gross hit by SUV in dispute with son
Ex-president
still draws crowd
Carter the author a hit in Durham
Witnesses
describe shooting
Two men are charged, another sought in fatal shooting Sunday of a convicted
drug dealer
Conservative
Texas Student Group Holds 'Affirmative Action' Bake Sale
cites Dr. James A. Anderson, former vice provost for undergraduate affairs
Bake
sale takes aim at A&M's diversity official
cites Dr. James A. Anderson, former vice provost for undergraduate affairs
Nov. 19, 2003
The News & Observer
By Ann S. Kim, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
The recording industry's crackdown on music piracy has reached the Triangle with two subpoenas seeking the identities of computer users at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University.
Lawyers for the schools
said they are consulting with the state Attorney General's Office on how to
respond to the subpoenas issued by the Recording Industry Association of America,
which represents companies such as Arista Records, Sony Music Entertainment
and BMG Music.
songs shared
Here are some of the songs two area computer users offered through
a file-sharing network in September, according to the Recording Industry Association
of America:
* "Beauty," "Never Make a Promise" and "These Are the Times," Dru Hill
* "Whenever, Wherever, Whatever," Maxwell
* "My Body" and "Curious," LSG
* "My Way," "Nice & Slow" and "U Got It Bad," Usher
* "MP," Ice Cube
* "Foe Life," Mack 10
* "Bring the Pain," Method Man
* "Phone Tap," The Firm
* "Cherchez LaGhost," Ghostface Killah
The subpoenas are part of the RIAA's huge legal effort to curb file swapping on peer-to-peer networks such as Morpheus and Kazaa.
The RIAA is trying to learn the identities of suspected pirates from Internet service providers, including universities. The group has filed 341 lawsuits around the country since September against individuals it accuses of illegally sharing songs.
The subpoenas filed last week at the U.S. Middle District federal courtroom in Durham allege that an NCSU user who goes by the name "CadillacMan" and another at UNC-CH called "hulk" have infringed the copyrights of RIAA's member companies by offering songs for download through their respective universities' computer systems.
According to the subpoenas, "hulk" and "CadillacMan" offered a number of songs through MP2P, a file-sharing network, on Sept. 11, and through Blubster, another network, on Sept. 13. The subpoenas list 14 songs, primarily R&B and rap songs, as examples.
David Drooz, associate general counsel for NCSU, said his office has notified the targeted person and conferred with student legal services, a nonprofit corporation on campus. "We're still weighing our options," he said. "It's a wild and woolly frontier in the law."
John Bason, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said he thinks the universities will provide the requested information to the RIAA's local counsel, perhaps by the end of the week.
Last month, the RIAA filed the UNC-CH subpoena in Washington. The group's lawyers refiled it in North Carolina after university lawyers said they did not consider the nation's capital the proper venue.
David Parker, senior associate counsel for UNC-CH, said the university is determining whether the subpoena is valid.
Jonathan Lamy, an RIAA spokesman, said his organization does not comment on specific subpoenas or lawsuits.
Chris Reed, a UNC-CH student from Hendersonville, said students have cut back on file-sharing dramatically since they returned this fall. "Most of my friends have said that it definitely awakened them a little bit," said Reed, a sophomore. He added that many also believe they can go undetected as long as they take precautions.
The common belief, he said, is that people are safe when they download songs onto their computers. The problem, according to this reasoning, is when the computers act as servers and provide other Internet users with access to them.
Resisting subpoenas
Some Internet service providers argue that they are not required to respond to RIAA copyright subpoenas, said Jason Schultz, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. Many are awaiting a decision from an appeals court in Washington in a case involving Verizon.
The company argued that its Internet services are akin to the lines for a telephone company, Schultz said. Both are merely conduits for information, he said, and neither the Internet service provider nor the telephone company is responsible for the content that flows through them.
The same reasoning could apply to universities, he said.
"The universities are kind of trapped by the recording industry, which is saying they have to police their systems," Schultz said. "That's like saying the telephone company has to police its lines to make sure there are no drug deals going back and forth."
Another problem, Schultz said, is that the RIAA is not required to notify computer users such as "CadillacMan" about a subpoena, only the Internet service provider, in this case, the universities. Those accused have a right to privacy and should have the option of fighting the subpoenas, he said.
Staff writer Ann S. Kim can be reached at 932-2014.
Nov. 19, 2003
The News & Observer
By Samantha Thompson Smith, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
There's a downfall for shoppers that comes with an improved economy: Fewer discounts. Sure, there will be holiday sales. But the dramatic markdowns that retailers desperately needed last year to jump-start sagging sales haven't surfaced yet. Instead, retailers are offering more subtle promotions aimed at differentiating themselves from the competition or offering shoppers incentives to spend more or return often.
"With the forecast of a better Christmas buying season, we'll see retailers less willing to give special discounts designed to attract customers, especially as the season gets going," said Michael L. Walden, an N.C. State University economist.
Those half-off signs or the buy-one-get-one-free promotions prevalent this time last year are hard to find while walking through Cary Towne Center or Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh.
Instead, Wilson's Leather is offering a free pair of gloves with a $149 purchase. And at the children's clothing store Gymboree, make a $50 purchase by Dec. 7 and get a $25 coupon good through the bulk of December.
Shoppers can already see the difference.
"Whenever I look for anything, I'm looking for a rebate or a discount," said Andy Beal of Raleigh, who last year searched for deals for most of his holiday shopping. "But it's a bit tougher this year. There's not as much going on."
Many retailers last year could sense a sluggish holiday shopping season was looming, so they started cutting prices just before the Thanksgiving weekend rush. Those early markdowns helped. The International Council of Shopping Center said Thanksgiving weekend sales last year accounted for 10 percent of the season's sales, compared with 8.4 percent in 2001.
Shoppers felt the desperation, and most waited for the deeper discounts to come. About 41 percent waited to shop between Dec. 16 and Dec. 24. That's compared with 34 percent the previous year.
In the end, sales last holiday shopping season increased only 2.2 percent, the slowest growth in a decade, according to the National Retail Federation.
This year, the trade group is hoping a stock market that has rebounded and more consumers back at work will help holiday sales rise 5.7 percent. If so, it would be the biggest gain since the 1999 holiday shopping season, when sales jumped 8.2 percent.
With retailers feeling more confident about spending, there's less pressure to discount.
Alex Viteri, marketing director at J. Jill, a Quincy, Mass.-based women's clothing chain, said J.Jill is still planning promotions, but not because of the economy.
"We're not offering any bigger discounts," he said. "There's so much noise in the mall. We really want to offer something a little different."
So, J. Jill, which has stores at Crabtree and The Streets at Southpoint in Durham, is giving shoppers who spend $150 during the second weekend of December a $30 gift pack of body lotion and nail cream from H2O Plus. And shoppers who spend $100 in November get a $20 gift card for shopping Dec. 4 to Dec. 24.
Stein Mart also has changed strategy, eliminating its 20 percent discount coupon on one item, lowering prices and running occasional sales. "The new strategy allows us at different points in the season to take a certain percentage off sale items," said spokeswoman Susan Edelman.
Belk has managed its inventory so that much of what's on shelves is newer than in previous years. As a result, the Charlotte-based department store chain won't have to take as many markdowns to move out old merchandise, said spokesman Steve Pernotto.
Belk will keep its targeted promotions, such as offering teachers, charge-card customers and Belk employees additional discounts on certain nights.
"We're not planning to be as promotional as last year, but we are going to have our share of promotions," Pernotto said.
Staff writer Samantha Smith can be reached at 829-4563.
Nov. 19, 2003
Winston-Salem Journal
By Journal staff and wire reports
© Copyright 2003 Winston-Salem Journal
The Bush administration said yesterday that it will restrict imports of knit fabric, robes and bras from China after complaints from U.S. manufacturers and legislators that unfair competition is costing jobs in such states as North Carolina.
The U.S. Commerce Department said it will limit import growth for those products to 7.5 percent over a year, which could help such companies as Sara Lee Corp.'s branded-apparel unit in Winston-Salem and Burlington Industries Inc. in Greensboro. The percentage limit could be raised in negotiations with the Chinese government that will take place over the next four months.
The action deals with petitions filed by the U.S. textile industry. A trade group for retailers that included Gap Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. opposed the safeguards, saying that consumer prices will rise as a result.
"What the administration is saying to textile- and apparel-makers in this country is that 'We feel your pain,'" said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics, a Washington research group. Hufbauer said that the action might be the first in a series of actions against China that could take place over the next year.
"This decision is based on politics, not facts," said Erik Autor, an attorney for the National Retail Federation, the retailers' trade group, in a statement. He said that the ruling will "create shortages that could lead to dramatic increases in prices for American consumers while doing nothing to protect American jobs."
Analysts said that it was not clear how much Sara Lee would benefit from the trade safeguards. The company makes intimate apparel in eight states and 24 countries, but not in China, according to its fiscal 2003 corporate report. Sara Lee said in the report that it had the top U.S. market share in bra sales at 28 percent.
If Sara Lee is competing against Chinese-made imports in some of their product lines, then presumably it would be helped for as long as the quotas last, said Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State University.
Peggy Carter, a company spokeswoman, said, "Because we haven't seen the specific language and guidelines in the safeguards, it would be irresponsible to speculate about how today's decision would impact Sara Lee.
"We are committed to a global manufacturing strategy with our intimate apparel, and the Caribbean Basin and Central America play a significant role in that strategy," Carter said.
The decision to pursue the textile safeguards drew praise from Southeast textile officials and members of North Carolina's congressional delegation. The entire delegation signed on Oct. 29 a letter urging the Bush administration to enforce the safeguards.
The officials and politicians cautioned that the restrictions won't solve the textile industry's challenges with Chinese imports, but will give it 12 months of breathing room to become more competitive.
Gov. Mike Easley said that the Bush administration's decision to support the limits is a promising first step. But he wants to see more emphasis from the administration on such issues as Chinese currency manipulation and having federal agencies enforce trade agreements more aggressively.
"Since 2001, North Carolina has lost more than 50,000 jobs in traditional textile, apparel and furniture industries," Easley said. "Many of these job losses are directly attributable to national trade policy.
"Now the Bush administration must sit down with China to negotiate strong, fair limits on these imports that will provide our industry time to retool and adjust to global trade."
U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, R-6th, said that the decision represents a milestone for textile companies and their workers "who have long been ignored by previous Republican and Democrat administrations."
"The administration is sending a clear message that free trade must be fair trade - and the U.S. is not going to stand idly by while our trading partners refuse to live up to their agreements," Coble said.
Wilbur Ross, the chairman of Burlington Industries, said that the restrictions would serve to protect the company that he purchased on Nov. 11.
"What's done today is a good first step, but it's not a solution to the China problem and I don't believe the quotas should be eliminated in January 2005," Ross said.
"It's wrong that 200,000 American jobs have been lost because of a violation of a trade agreement," he said.
Jane Johnson, the manager of government relations for Unifi Inc., based in Greensboro, described the decision as a "banner day for the textile industry."
But Johnson also questioned how much relief the safeguards ultimately will provide in a market already saturated with Chinese textile imports.
"A 71/2 percent cap on current import volume, while welcomed, still allows a ton of Chinese imports to come into the country," she said.
Chinese sales of textiles to the U.S. rose 63 percent to $3.15billion in 2002, data from the Commerce Department show. China's sales are on the way to exceeding that total this year, and representatives of U.S. companies say that a worldwide agreement to end restrictions on textile trade in 2005 could leave China as the only producer of textiles in the world.
The U.S. trade deficit widened in September to $41.3billion, as the deficit with China reached a record $12.7billion. The U.S. deficit with China this year may reach $130 billion, which would be the most with any country in U.S. history.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, Treasury Secretary John Snow and other officials have urged China to open its doors to more U.S. exports and investment. Some 2.6 million U.S. manufacturing jobs have been lost since Bush took office.
Many legislators blame at least some of the decline on China's trade protections and a currency pegged to the dollar.
Steven Dunaway, the head of the International Monetary Fund's China team, said that the U.S. action "was a big risk." Dunaway said that the move could prompt China to retaliate with similar measures.
"It's the kind of situation the IMF strongly discourages," Dunaway said.
NC State Scientists Design a New Transistor
Nov. 18, 2003
Triangle TechJournal
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Triangle TechJournal LLC
Raleigh, NC - When amazing
new computers and other electronic devices emerge, they will have been conceived
and incubated in university laboratories like that of Dr. Chris Gorman,
professor of chemistry at North Carolina State
University. There, the scientist and his multidisciplinary team are
working to build, molecule by molecule, a nanoscale transistor.
That's an electronic switch so small it can only be seen with a high-tech device called a scanning tunneling microscope. And if you go to the library to find the "how-to" book, says Gorman, "most of the pages will be blank, because nobody yet knows how to do it."
And that, for the chemists, engineers and students engaged in the project, is what makes their painstaking, pioneering research so satisfying. If they can design and construct a nanoscale transistor, Gorman, his colleagues and his students will have filled in many of the blank pages in the how-to book. The field is so new, the research avenues so unexplored, that each experiment, each variation, helps write that book.
Their work is guided by the "bottom-up" approach to building something, says Gorman. "Most things are built using 'top-down' methods," he explains, "where you take a chunk of metal, stone or wood and carve off the material you don't want, until you have an I-beam or a two-by-four. In contrast, we're interested in assembling molecules, and building a functioning transistor - with as few of the molecules as possible."
A persuasive advocate of
multidisciplinary research, Gorman is working with NC State colleagues
Dr. Daniel L. Feldheim, associate professor of chemistry, and Dr. Gregory N.
Parsons, associate professor of chemical engineering, to combine this
bottom-up approach with Parsons' top-down engineering in the creation of the
nanoscale transistor. Parsons will construct a molecular platform with a tiny
indentation into which Gorman, Feldheim and their student team hope to fit a
molecular "plug." The resulting structure should function as an electronic
switch - the definition of a transistor.
"Our research will tackle two critical issues in future materials for advanced molecule-based information processing," says Gorman. "One, how to assemble and attach single molecules to electronic contacts and, two, how to create electronic gain - the fundamental operating principle of a transistor - at the molecular level."
The benefits of the team's success could be far ranging, he says. "Better techniques for information processing will keep our economy growing stronger by enabling smaller, faster and lighter electronics." Imagine, says Gorman, the contents of a library in a postage-stamp-sized chip, and you can begin to ponder some exciting possibilities and "the next phase of electronics development in the United States."
While the private sector and corporate research and development will ultimately develop such technologies, Gorman says, the fundamental research - with its exploration of byways and promising side streets, false starts as well as serendipitous discoveries - must take place in universities, with federal and state help.
Gorman's research, for example, is funded by the National Science Foundation through its Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams (NIRT) program.
Another must, according to Gorman, "is fundamentally changing how the next generation of technically savvy students is educated. In our research, we want our students to pursue degrees that involve traditional science, engineering and technology-development aspects and state-of-the-art research approaches. We also want to expand the opportunities for women and minorities to participate in this new, interdisciplinary paradigm."
News Advisory: Panel to Pursue Innovative Approaches to Cyber Security
Nov. 19, 2003
US Newswire
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 US Newswire.
WHAT: Preeminent industry and academic leaders in computing confront "out-of-the-box" ideas from recent "Grand Research Challenges Conference" on cyber security
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 20, 8:30 am to 10:30 am (breakfast included)
WHERE: National Press Club (Holeman Lounge), 529 14th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.. 20045
WHY: To promote advanced thinking on cyber security research resulting from GRC conference Nov.16-19, featuring the top minds in information security research across academia, industry, and government labs worldwide
WHO:
-- Dr. Eugene Spafford, Executive Director, Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS), Purdue University, ACM Computing Policy Committee (USACM) and CRA Board of Directors
-- Dr. Annie Anton, Founder and Director, thePrivacyPlace.org, Professor, North Carolina State University
-- Dr. Dan Geer, Independent Security Consultant
-- Dr. Susan Landau, Senior Staff Engineer, Sun Microsystems
-- Mr. John Richardson, Government Technical Liaison Director, Intel
CONTACTS:
Carla Romero or Peter Harsha, 202-234-2111, both of CRA;
Jeff Grove or Lillie Coney, 202-659-9711, both of ACM
About the Computing Research Association (CRA)
CRA is an association of more than 200 North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering, and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia engaging in basic computing research; and affiliated professional societies. CRA's mission is to strengthen research and education in the computing fields, expand opportunities for women and minorities, and improve public and policymaker understanding of the importance of computing and computing research in our society. Additional information at: http://www.cra.org.
About the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
ACM is a major force in advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students through its publications, special interest groups, conferences, Portal to Computing Literature, Digital Library, and professional development resources. ACM serves its global membership by delivering cutting edge technical information and transferring ideas from theory to practice. The ACM Office of Public Policy serves the computing community by promoting the development of national and global policies and frameworks that advance the open interchange of information concerning computing and related disciplines. Additional information at: http://www.acm.org/usacm.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
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Nov. 19, 2003
The News & Observer
By Chris Serres, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Mutual fund companies that fail to adopt widespread reforms risk losing millions of dollars in business from North Carolina.
State Treasurer Richard H. Moore said mutual funds should disclose more about their fees, trading costs and salaries for fund managers if they want to administer money for the state's 401(k) plan, which contains $2.3 billion in retirement savings for 181,000 state and local government workers. Moore wrote letters to state retirement plan administrators in other states, including New York and California, urging them to press for similar reforms.
"We're looking for industry leadership here," Moore told reporters during a conference call Tuesday. "We are looking for fund managers who have a desire to listen to their customers and set a higher standard."
Moore's proposed guidelines do not apply to companies that manage North Carolina's $56 billion pension fund for public employees, because the fund does not invest directly in mutual funds.
Moore's announcement follows continuing revelations that dozens of mutual fund companies had offered special trading deals with some customers. Others broke laws against after-hours trading.
The rapidly spreading scandal has prompted Congress and federal regulators to call for stricter oversight of the $7 trillion mutual fund industry.
Yet Moore is the first state treasurer or pension fund manager nationwide to announce a specific list of reforms for the mutual fund industry, said Nell Minnow, editor The Corporate Library, an independent research firm based in Portland, Maine, that specializes in corporate governance.
"The SEC has known about these problems for quite some time and done nothing," Minnow said. "It's absolutely critical that people with clout speak out and keep things focused on the important issues."
Moore is asking mutual funds to provide an annual statement of fees disclosed in dollars, rather than percentages, so shareholders can better see how much they pay. He wants funds to disclose the amount of money earned by their managers at least once a year, along with the shares they own and a record of all sales of fund shares. He also wants at least two-thirds of the members of mutual fund boards to be independent directors.
Moore sent his list of demands, what he called the "Mutual Fund Protection Principles," to eight companies that manage mutual funds offered in North Carolina's 401(k) plan. They include American Funds, Federated, Fidelity Investments, Putnam, Oppenheimer, T. Rowe Price, Van Kampen and Vanguard. The companies have until next September to adopt the changes or risk losing the state's business.
This is not the first time Moore has used the state's financial clout to lobby for change.
Last year, he persuaded a group of state pension fund managers to impose ethical guidelines on investment banks. And last week, Moore ordered a review of the state's contract with Alliance Capital, which manages $6.4 billion for the state pension fund, after the disclosure that some Alliance employees had allowed investors to trade in and out of the firm's funds.
But unless other institutional investors follow Moore's lead, the investment principles likely won't prompt mutual fund companies to change, said Charles Jones, a finance professor of N.C. State University.
"It's admirable to see Moore out there, hammering away," Jones said. "But $2.3 billion [under management] is not enough to get the attention of a $7 trillion industry."
Staff writer Chris Serres can be reached at 836-4906.
Renewable energy effort faces hurdles
Nov. 15, 2003
The Charlotte Observer
By Bruce Henderson, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Charlotte Observer.
Untapped sun, wind and organic resources are like found gold, experts say, rich enough to someday supply a third of North Carolina's electricity.
But catching the wind won't be simple. It has to overcome the indifference of legislators and the public, and resistance from big utilities.
Renewable energy pollutes less than coal and isn't burdened by the safety and waste issues of nuclear, the sources of nearly all N.C. power. It's a home-grown, free and theoretically inexhaustible fuel.
But "green energy" is also easy to ignore. The technology is relatively expensive in an era of cheap power and will need subsidies to flower.
NC GreenPower, launched last month, is the country's first statewide renewable-energy program. The program was approved by the N.C. Utilities Commission and all of the state's major utilities are taking part. Its success will ride on how many electric customers fork over an extra $4 a month to pump more green electricity into the state.
"We're asking people to help us right now, and it's not a good time (economically) to be asking," said Bill Lee, who runs a small hydroelectric plant in Alamance County.
GreenPower, in any case, is widely viewed as only a first step. Expanding the use of renewables faces a long line of speed bumps:
• Utilities such as Duke Power will fight the mandatory measures that clean-energy advocates insist are needed.
• Legislators have, thus far, shown little interest in pushing incentives that many other states have adopted.
• The state's most promising undeveloped resource, wind, is compromised by a law that doesn't allow windmills on mountain ridges.
• State money for research and development is running out.
Those obstacles suggest North Carolina's energy future could look a lot like its past, despite public concern over power-plant emissions, blackouts, natural gas prices and global warming.
With N.C. electrical demand expected to grow by 35 percent by 2020, clean-energy advocates say now is the time to invest in renewables.
A federal energy bill to be released today was expected to include some incentives for renewables and alternative fuels, but environmental critics blasted it for developing oil and gas on public lands.
Coal is under fire for its impact on health. Power-plant emissions help trigger thousands of asthma attacks a year, the state estimates, and contain fine particles believed to shorten thousands of lives. Environmentalists attacked recent Bush administration rule changes that may let some plants avoid the cost of new pollution devices.
But coal power is also cheap and plentiful. Because green electricity costs more to produce, utilities say, mandates to use it would jack up rates.
"For legislators and Utility Commission members, the first question they're always going to ask is, `How much is this going to cost?' " said Julie Hans of the Raleigh-based utility Progress Energy. "We're the ones who are expected to give legislators the reality of the situation."
Duke and Progress can rightly claim credit for agreeing to deeply curb emissions. Duke alone says it will spend $1.5 billion to comply with the 2002 Clean Smokestacks Act.
That's praise-worthy, said Michael Shore of the advocacy group Environmental Defense. But, he added, "their job doesn't end with putting more controls on their smokestacks."
Green power a hard sale
GreenPower will serve as a state referendum and a marketing vehicle for renewable energy."With 1 percent participation, NC GreenPower would be phenomenally successful," said Richard Harkrader, a retired Durham architect who is vice chairman of its board.
"The hard thing in North Carolina is that nobody has had to think about where their power comes from or what its environmental attributes are. It's a pretty hard sale, especially initially."
GreenPower's goals are modest: sell enough electricity to power about 3,000 homes in 2004 and 10,000 homes by 2006. About 2,100 Duke and Progress customers have signed on.
South Carolina's state-owned utility, Santee Cooper, also offers a green-power program powered by methane gas from the Horry County landfill. This year the utility said it would build plants at three more landfills.
The N.C. program is intended to develop new, in-state sources of power. Wind and solar -- the environmentally purest technologies -- are to provide 15 percent of what's offered to residential customers within three years, with methane gas captured from landfills to provide the rest.
Some environmentalists criticize the program for including power producers, such as hydro plants and incinerators, they say might not be green enough. Biomass, a catch-all category that encompasses organic wastes from wood debris to hog manure, is the state's largest potential renewable source but also its most controversial.
In the cause of cleaner air, said Matt Wasson of the Boone-based group Appalachian Voices, consumers could make a bigger difference by investing in energy-efficient lightbulbs.
Subsidies not enough
But most advocates agree on wind's green credentials. North Carolina has the best wind potential in the Southeast, says the Energy Center at Appalachian State University.
Carolina Green Energy LLC, formed in August, plans to build wind farms near North Carolina's rural coast, carefully out of sight from the beach. The company hopes to have its first farm online by 2005.
"The good news is there are not very many competitors. The bad news is there's a good reason for that," said Carolina Green Energy CEO Tim Toben, who sold his Chapel Hill database-marketing firm in 1999.
Carolina Green Energy's is one of 46 proposals, 31 from new generators, to sell electricity to GreenPower. The program will boost these producers with a small subsidy in addition to the price utilities pay for their electricity.
But the subsidy alone can't sustain renewable generators struggling under high infrastructure costs, Toben said. Their longterm survival, he said, will depend on utilities paying higher rates.
Federal law says utilities must buy some electricity from small producers. Prices are based on costs the utilities avoid by not making the power themselves. And that price has steadily dropped. The peak rates Duke pays have fallen 27 percent in the past 20 years, the Utilities Commission says.
Five or six of the state's three dozen small hydro plants have closed in the past five years, said Bill Lee of Haw River Hydro. He thinks small hydros can't last another 20 years without help.
Suggestions for viability
Legislators and the Utilities Commission could do more to make renewables viable, advocates say. The State Energy Plan, updated this summer, and an assessment commissioned by the State Energy Office echoed key recommendations:
• Consider making utilities get a fixed percentage of their electricity from renewable sources. Then-Gov. George Bush made Texas one of 15 states to adopt renewable portfolio standards, as they are called.
• Adopt net metering, as 33 states have done, allowing owners of renewable-powered systems to get credit from utilities for the excess power they produce. The Utilities Commission will hold a hearing in May.
• Establish a state fund, like those in at least 15 other states, to support renewable research, energy efficiency and alternative-fuel programs. Adding a small monthly fee to all electricity sold in the state, equivalent to about $1 for residential users, would generate about $115 million a year in North Carolina.
A measure to create a trust fund to encourage clean-fuel vehicles, tree planting and renewables research didn't emerge from an N.C. Senate committee this year.
While legislators granted 35 percent tax credits for renewables in 2000, green energy is not "even on the radar of most legislators," said state Sen. Wib Gulley, D-Durham, who sponsored an unsuccessful net-metering bill this year.
"And the major players, the Duke Powers and CP&Ls, both feel that they've done a lot lately and are wary of more changes."
Gulley's bill would have cost customers $21 million a year, Progress Energy says.
The utilities say they have nothing against renewables -- Duke got its start with hydro plants nearly a century ago -- but prefer voluntary approaches like GreenPower.
"We are opposed to a specific mandate that would result in higher costs for customers," said Duke Power spokesman Tom Williams, "or anything that would treat one customer differently from another."
Most states who adopted such measures did so during negotiations over utility deregulation, a dormant issue in North Carolina.
"These things need momentum," said Steve Kalland, associate director of the N.C. Solar Center at N.C. State University. "Right now, I'm not sure we have that momentum."
Durant athletics director injured
Nov. 19, 2003
The News & Observer
By Oren Dorell, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
WAKE FOREST -- The athletics director of Durant Road Middle School was in surgery Tuesday night after being hit by an SUV during a dispute with his son.
The incident occurred about 3 a.m. outside the home of Larry Martin Gross, 56, on Greenville Loop Road in Wake Forest, said Phyllis Stephens, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office.
He was in serious condition Tuesday night after being treated in the surgical intensive care unit at WakeMed, hospital officials said.
Gross has been the athletics director at Durant Road Middle School since it opened in 1995, Wake County Public Schools spokesman Michael Evans said. He has been a health and physical education teacher for the school system since 1994.
"He was hurt very badly," Stephens said.
Deputies arrested Matthew James Gross, 33, Tuesday afternoon at his parents' home, where he also lives, Stephens said. He was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon inflicting serious injury, a felony.
She said the father and son began arguing when the son wanted to head out for a pack of cigarettes at 3 a.m. The son ran out and jumped into his sister's 1995 Land Rover and, with his mother standing by the driver's side and his father standing in front of the car, "he sped off," Stephens said.
Matthew Gross was going to turn himself in but changed his mind, she said. His wife later notified deputies through attorney Rusty Dement that he was home, and they arrested him there.
Bobby Guthrie, senior administrator for athletics for the Wake County Public School System, said Larry Gross is a likable man who has helped his school win several awards for sportsmanship.
"He is very friendly," he said.
Before becoming a middle school administrator, Gross was a men's and women's soccer coach at N.C. State University. In 1988, he led the Wolfpack women to a championship in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and he was named national coach of the year.
Staff writer Oren Dorell can be reached at 829-8963.
Staff writer Ryan Teague Beckwith contributed to this report.
Ex-president still draws crowd
Nov. 19, 2003
The News & Observer
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
DURHAM -- Barbara Lezette expects her husband home for dinner and is hungry enough by 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to call him on his cell phone and ask where he is. At the Regulator Bookshop, he says.
"I said you won't believe it, there's Secret Service people everywhere and I can see Jimmy Carter!"
No way, she says. So Skip Lezette, 62, hands the phone to Carter.
"Hello, Barbara," says the 39th president of the United States.
Then he signed Lezette's copy of his latest book, "The Hornet's Nest," a novel about the Revolutionary War set in North Carolina. Lezette rolled away in his automatic wheelchair saying, "He's a regular guy. I wouldn't expect him to do that, but ask, and you shall receive."
Crowds that flock to Carter's book signings ask a lot. They want pictures, words of wisdom and that old familiar eye-crinkling smile from the first president sworn in by nickname. Carter, 79, who has visited the Triangle twice before, was ready to oblige.
During a brief interview, he said he hopes the book -- his 17th -- will alert readers to the role the South played in the war. Like his protagonist, Ethan Pratt, who tries to broker peace between settlers and native tribes, he said American leaders should try for "peace whenever possible." Forces in Iraq are necessary now to maintain peace, he said, but a leadership vacuum has left the country at a "stalemate."
"Why don't you run for a second term?" called the crowd. The Nobel laureate beamed and replied, "Then I couldn't write books."
The crowd cheered. To laughter, he admitted he is worried that his Sunday school class in Plains, Ga., may be scandalized by the book's sex scenes. Of course, the detail man assured the crowd, "the language was extremely accurate, historically."
The store sold out 2,000 copies of Carter's book, its largest signing ever, co-owner Tom Campbell said. Customers filled the building, its Ninth Street block and the road. Those who bought advance copies received numbered places in line. Campbell's daughter Amy, 17, directed them with a bullhorn.
Shella Fon, 23, found a bench and waited. The N.C. State University senior from Washington, D.C., was number 1,932. She just wanted to see Carter.
"Is he gentle?" she asked. "A friend of mine told me he's like an old professor that you never lose respect for. Someone you can go back to in your life for advice."
Carter stayed past 9 p.m. to sign at least 1,400 books. He wasn't allowed to pause for pictures, but the crowd snapped away, and some, including the Rev. Jean-Luc Charles, got what they came for.
Charles, 31, was there to record 8-year-old Khalil Knight meeting the president. The visit was a surprise for Khalil, a reward for making the third-grade honor roll. Khalil, a member of Charles' White Rock Baptist Church, does not really know who Carter is. But he will learn, Charles said, and be inspired.
"Ten or 15 years from now, he'll look back at this book and see what he has achieved and know why."
Staff writer Molly Hennessy-Fiske can be reached at 829-4884.
Nov. 19, 2003
The News & Observer
By Oren Dorell, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
RALEIGH -- Police and witnesses to a fatal shooting Sunday evening described an ambush that began with a relationship far outside Raleigh and ended with one person dead, one a fugitive and two people charged as accessories.
Police have obtained an arrest warrant charging Jessie "Doozie" Wayne Pratt, 29, of Montgomery County with the murder of 20-year-old Detony McRae Snipes of Randolph County, Lt. Chris Morgan of the Raleigh Police Department said Monday.
Kevin David Herbert, 24, of 207 S. Murphy St. in Liberty, and Larry Darnell Julius, 20, of 414 Foxfire Road in Asheboro, were arrested in Randolph County and taken to the Wake County jail Monday, where their bail was set at $750,000 each.
Their arrest warrants accused them of helping Pratt elude police. Investigators are still processing the suspected getaway car, a rented burgundy minivan recovered from Randolph County, and the victim's gold-colored Infiniti, Morgan said.
Snipes, a convicted drug dealer, had been released from prison in July after serving a sentence for felony assault, his third such conviction, according to N.C. Department of Correction records.
Morgan said Snipes and Pratt were acquaintances, and Pratt learned recently that Snipes was staying in Raleigh. The suspects all had a single motive for coming to Raleigh -- a confrontation with Snipes, Morgan said.
He would not say what the confrontation was about but that it involved almost no conversation when it happened. "If there was any, it was very, very, very, very, very brief," Morgan said. Snipes was shot three times, he said.
The shooting occurred about 6:30 p.m. Sunday in a parking lot outside a 2320 Centennial Ridge Way residence. It was witnessed by numerous residents in the Centennial Ridge apartment complex, which caters mostly to college students, and where many residents were enjoying a balmy evening Sunday with their windows open. Two witnesses said that after they heard shots, they saw a man run to a waiting burgundy minivan that then rolled slowly away after he got in.
Lauren E. Tryon, 22, a history student at N.C. State University, said she saw three men sitting in a burgundy minivan and heard them urging someone to "Get in, get in," as the van backed out of a parking spot. She said she saw a man run up and say "I got him, I got him," as he jumped into the van.
P. Abbie Byrom, 21, a journalism student at NCSU, said she was talking to her roommates when they heard gunfire. She said she saw a man run from around the building with what looked like a gun in his hand and jump into a minivan, which she described as shiny and clean.
"It's nerve-racking," she said. "I love our apartment, but this makes me want to move."
Staff writer Oren Dorell can be reached at 829-8963.
Nov. 19, 2003
The News & Observer
By T. Keung Hui, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Combs Elementary School had a special visitor Thursday: leadership expert and author Stephen Covey. Covey, known for his best seller "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," congratulated the Raleigh magnet school for its accomplishments. Combs' leadership magnet theme is based on Covey's teachings and helped the school to be recognized in September by the Character Education Partnership as one of 2003's top 10 National Schools of Character.
Covey was visiting Raleigh to take part in the N.C. State Hugh Shelton Leadership Initiative. Combs Principal Muriel Summers participated in a session called "Making It Happen -- The Experience of the National School of Character."
Molecule by Molecule, NC State Scientists Design a New Transistor
Nov. 19, 2003
innovations report
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 innovations report.
When amazing new computers and other electronic devices emerge, they will have been conceived and incubated in university laboratories like that of Dr. Chris Gorman, professor of chemistry at North Carolina State University. There, the scientist and his multidisciplinary team are working to build, molecule by molecule, a nanoscale transistor.
That’s an electronic switch so small it can only be seen with a high-tech device called a scanning tunneling microscope. And if you go to the library to find the “how-to” book, says Gorman, “most of the pages will be blank, because nobody yet knows how to do it.”
And that, for the chemists, engineers and students engaged in the project, is what makes their painstaking, pioneering research so satisfying. If they can design and construct a nanoscale transistor, Gorman, his colleagues and his students will have filled in many of the blank pages in the how-to book. The field is so new, the research avenues so unexplored, that each experiment, each variation, helps write that book.
Their work is guided by the “bottom-up” approach to building something, says Gorman. “Most things are built using ‘top-down’ methods,” he explains, “where you take a chunk of metal, stone or wood and carve off the material you don’t want, until you have an I-beam or a two-by-four. In contrast, we’re interested in assembling molecules, and building a functioning transistor – with as few of the molecules as possible.”
A persuasive advocate of multidisciplinary research, Gorman is working with NC State colleagues Dr. Daniel L. Feldheim, associate professor of chemistry, and Dr. Gregory N. Parsons, associate professor of chemical engineering, to combine this bottom-up approach with Parsons’ top-down engineering in the creation of the nanoscale transistor. Parsons will construct a molecular platform with a tiny indentation into which Gorman, Feldheim and their student team hope to fit a molecular “plug.” The resulting structure should function as an electronic switch – the definition of a transistor.
“Our research will tackle two critical issues in future materials for advanced molecule-based information processing,” says Gorman. “One, how to assemble and attach single molecules to electronic contacts and, two, how to create electronic gain – the fundamental operating principle of a transistor – at the molecular level.”
The benefits of the team’s success could be far ranging, he says. “Better techniques for information processing will keep our economy growing stronger by enabling smaller, faster and lighter electronics.” Imagine, says Gorman, the contents of a library in a postage-stamp-sized chip, and you can begin to ponder some exciting possibilities and “the next phase of electronics development in the United States.”
While the private sector and corporate research and development will ultimately develop such technologies, Gorman says, the fundamental research – with its exploration of byways and promising side streets, false starts as well as serendipitous discoveries – must take place in universities, with federal and state help.
Gorman’s research, for example, is funded by the National Science Foundation through its Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams (NIRT) program.
Another must, according to Gorman, “is fundamentally changing how the next generation of technically savvy students is educated. In our research, we want our students to pursue degrees that involve traditional science, engineering and technology-development aspects and state-of-the-art research approaches. We also want to expand the opportunities for women and minorities to participate in this new, interdisciplinary paradigm.”
As evidence that this new paradigm is already taking shape, Gorman’s undergraduate and graduate students, “the Gorman Group,” are fully engaged in his quest for the nanoscale transistor. From the newest students, such as Tiffani Bailey and Jennifer Ayres, to rising juniors such as Bill Capshaw and Jonah Jurss, to veteran grad students such as Tyson Chasse and Drew Wassel, among others, the group collaborates in exploring the nanoscale realms for promising applications.
“With the increasingly fast pace of technological change,” says Gorman, “it’s possible that many of the rules that we teach students in college can be obsolete by the time they graduate. That’s why we must focus on how to think, how to solve problems, how to explore the unexpected avenues and surprising new paths – and, in some ways, to disregard traditional disciplinary boundaries.”
Disregarding traditional boundaries may be a necessary practice for all successful scientists, especially the pioneers, such as Gorman, working at the very edge of the possible. When the next generation of technology transforms our lives, it will have been conceived and perfected in university labs, built grant by grant, student by student, molecule by molecule.
Conservative Texas Student Group Holds 'Affirmative Action' Bake Sale
Nov. 19, 2003
Cybercast News Service
By Melaine Hunter, CNSNews. com Deputy Managing Editor
© Copyright 2003 Cybercast News Service.
(CNSNews.com) - A conservative Texas student group is planning an "affirmative action" bake sale and pledge drive Wednesday to protest the creation of a new position addressing diversity at Texas A&M University.
The group is opposed to the new vice president of institutional assessment and diversity position at the university. Dr. James A. Anderson will assume this post on Nov. 19.
The Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) held a similar bake sale in September at Southern Methodist University, but university administrators shut it down.
"We hope our affirmative action bake sale and pledge drive will show the students of Texas A&M University the fallacies of many of the so called 'diversity' initiatives being pursued by Texas A&M and other universities across the country," said YCT-A&M Current Issues Director Rebecca Falkowski in a statement.
"During our pledge drive, we will be seeking out 'non-underrepresented-minority' students and faculty supportive of affirmative action who wish to express, in writing, their willingness to give up their spot at Texas A&M to be replaced by a member of a racial class who would be more valued by the vice president of diversity," Falkowski said.
"Our affirmative action bake sale is intended to expose the ludicrous nature of race-based admissions policies. Just as it is abhorrent to judge people based on their skin color in the sale of baked goods, it is abhorrent to recruit, admit or hire individuals for A&M based on their skin color," said YCT Communications Director Mark McCraig.
"It is our sincere desire that the Texas A&M administration will look beyond race and other superficial characteristics and instead focus on ways to contribute to the intellectual diversity of Texas A&M University," McCraig added.
Anderson was recruited from his position as vice provost for undergraduate affairs at North Carolina State University.
Anderson has received numerous awards and honors over the years, including Distinguished Black Pennsylvanian Award in 1988, Who's Who Among Black Americans 1986-87 and the Distinguished Service Award from the Commission on Human Resources and Social Change in 2001.
The Dallas chapter of the NAACP did not return phone calls seeking comment.
"It is sad that a university department head and a new vice president have tried to drum up support and mobilize students to celebrate racial discrimination," said YCT-A&M Executive Director Sarah Davis.
"One memo even suggested that minority students who support our stand against affirmative action should ignore their principles because of their race. Can we expect the vice president of diversity, who will be paid $170,000 a year, to continue to use university resources to target conservative students?" Davis added.
YCT-A&M Chairman Matthew Maddox pointed to a memo he claimed was written by the dean of the College of Engineering, Dr. G. Kimble, "detailing certain guidelines the College of Engineering plans to employ when hiring 112 new faculty members."
"Two such guidelines are 'a minimum of one-third of the new hires would include women or individuals from underrepresented groups,' and 'a minimum of one endowed chair or professorship per department will be designated for exceptional women faculty candidates or faculty candidates from underrepresented groups,'" Maddox said.
"YCT will continue
to protest any official or unofficial Texas A&M policy that uses race as
a factor in hiring or admissions," Maddox concluded.
When contacted by CNSNews.com for comment, a university spokesman referred to
a statement from the interim vice president for student affairs, Dr. Bill Kibler.
"This is a freedom of speech and freedom of expression issue, and the university obviously honors those provisions of the Constitution," Kibler said in the statement.
"Thus, no action is planned regarding the activity proposed by this particular group provided it does not interfere with any ongoing university activities or violate any university rules or regulations," Kibler added.
"Concerning the stated reason for the group's proposed activities, Texas A&M remains firm in its commitment to create a student body, faculty and staff reflective of the ethnic and racial makeup of Texas, and we are confident that Dr. Anderson can provide vital leadership in achieving that goal," Kibler concluded.
Bake sale takes aim at A&M's diversity official
Nov. 19, 2003
Houston Chronicle
By Armando Villafranca, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Houston Chronicle.
COLLEGE STATION -- A conservative student group plans to hold a controversial "affirmative action" bake sale where cookie prices will be based on a buyer's gender and race to protest today's arrival of a new diversity leader at Texas A&M University.
At the sale, white males must pay $1 for a cookie while the same kind of cookie will be sold to white females for 75 cents, to Hispanics for 50 cents and to African-Americans for 25 cents.
Matthew Maddox, chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas A&M, said the bake sale is being held to protest the creation of the new position of vice president of institutional assessment and diversity at A&M in College Station.
James A. Anderson, the former vice provost for undergraduate affairs at North Carolina State University, will assume the new post today.
Maddox, a senior from Houston, said his group is echoing the concerns of many on campus about the functions of the new vice president. He said he and others have repeatedly asked administrators to explain what the job will entail.
Young Conservatives of Texas have used the strategy before to protest the use of race and gender in college admissions. Southern Methodist University made national news Sept. 24 when it shut down a bake sale after an African-American student complained about it.
The group also held a similar bake sale at Texas A&M at the beginning of this semester. A&M officials took no action then, and officials said they do not anticipate acting against the sale planned today.
"This is a freedom of speech and freedom of expression issue, and the university obviously honors those provisions of the Constitution," Bill Kibler, interim vice president for student affairs, said in a prepared statement.
"Thus, no action is planned regarding the activity proposed by this particular group, provided it does not interfere with any ongoing university activities or violate any university rules or regulation."
Kibler went on to say that A&M remains committed to creating a student body, faculty and staff reflective of the ethnic and racial makeup of Texas and that Anderson will lead the university toward that goal. In 2001, according to the most recent enrollment figures available, 82 percent of the student body and more than 87 percent of the faculty at Texas A&M were white.
The school's Department of Multicultural Services recently met with various student groups to discuss ways to respond to the bake sale.
"Minority students do have a problem with this, but theyhaven't been brave enough to do something about this," said Amethyst Thorman, an A&M Hispanic President's Council delegate.
"We're finally at that point where we're tired of putting up with them not taking other people's opinions and views into consideration and we're going to do something about it," she said.
Various groups plan to set up their own tables near the Young Conservatives and distribute fliers supporting affirmative action and Anderson's hiring.
"I think it's ignorant," Thorman said about the conservative group's position. "They don't have enough sense to go find proper information, get educated on what's going on, not only affirmative action, but also diversity."
The Young Conservatives also plan a pledge drive today where they will seek out white students and faculty members -- part of a "non-underrepresented minority," they say -- who support affirmative action.
The white students and faculty members will be asked to pledge their place at A&M to "a member of a racial class who would be more valued by the vice president of diversity."