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NC State University News Clips for November 6-8, 2004

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

IN-STATE CLIPS

Business as usual
Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics

Local tobacco growers use buyout to diversify farms
Blake Brown, agricultural and resource economics

Friends, critics size up Burr
Andrew Taylor, political science

People
Engineering Foundation Board Outstanding Service Award; L. George Wilson, vice provost for international affairs

Q: Judicial choices
Vincent Phillip Munoz, political science

Coming Up in Business
Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics

NATIONAL & REGIONAL CLIPS

Click here to be taken to the CLIP ARCHIVES

Coming Up in Business

Nov. 5, 2004
Triad Business Journal
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

Monday

The American Production and Inventory Control Society will meet Nov. 8 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Airport Marriott, One Marriott Drive in Greensboro. The speaker will be Michael Walden, professor at N.C. State University, on the topic of “The Election, Economy and Jobs-WII-FM, What’s In It for Me.” The cost is $30 at the door and $15 for students. Register online at www.triadapics.org or by phone at (336) 323-9836.

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Autopsy Results In For Tailgate Shooting Victim

Nov. 7, 2004
WRAL
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

RALEIGH -- Autopsy results are in for a Marine killed at a tailgate party outside an North Carolina State University football game in September.

Second Lt. Brett Harman was shot and killed during a fight at a parking lot across from Carter-Finley Stadium. The autopsy report shows he also had several deep cuts and abrasions.

Witnesses had reported Harman and Kevin McCann got into a fight with two men who later shot and killed them.

Brothers Tony and Timothy Johnson each face two counts of first-degree murder.

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Business as usual

Nov. 7, 2004
News & Observer
By JONATHAN B. COX
 © Copyright 2004

President George W. Bush's extended lease on the White House could prove a boon to Highwoods Properties of Raleigh.

The real estate company, which has struggled to fill buildings amid slack demand for office space, is betting that businesses will more readily expand with Bush as president.

Had Democratic challenger John Kerry won, executives likely would have been stymied as government agencies and departments made the transition to new leadership, said Ed Fritsch, Highwoods chief executive. Now companies have certainty -- and more confidence to take action.

"At least with this election, with Bush being in office, you know what you've got," said Fritsch, leader of the Southeast's biggest suburban office landlord. Executives that are more comfortable adding to their operations "translates into us being able to lease more space."

The president wields considerable clout over companies in the Triangle and elsewhere, though his influence is not always direct or obvious. A president's politics, for instance, sometimes are less important than the endurance of his administration. Companies long for stability. When a president wins re-election, they get it.

The power of his policies is unmistakable.

During his first term, Bush was good for business. He cut taxes three times, relaxed environ-

-mental rules and appointed pro-business politicians to oversee telecommunications, energy and other issues. Executives are optimistic that the next four years will be equally lucrative.

But all might not benefit. Bush's cowboy reputation and global trade policies could hamper U.S. companies trying to do business overseas, critics say. His decisions on where to invest federal research dollars could lead some industries to flourish while others decline. What's more, a president's actions usually matter more for the future than the present. While markets might rally and bosses cheer now, in the coming years, some might regret Bush's second term.

At the least, it will be busy.

"It's the only chance the president has to really make things happen," said James F. Smith, an economist at UNC-Chapel Hill. "They come in and way too much of their first term is wasted trying to figure out how to get a second. Once they get it, they have to hit the ground running."

Bush has the added advantage of a receptive Congress. Republicans tightened their grip on the House and Senate, making it easier for the president to push his agenda.

The issues that the president faces, however, won't be easy. With less revenue after the tax cuts and higher spending because of the war in Iraq, the nation must contend with a widening budget deficit. The trade deficit also is expanding amid growing, and cheaper, imports from countries such as China.

Energy prices are hovering near records. The rapidly rising cost of health care and aging population pose a one-two threat that could undermine the economy.

"He's got major problems," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York. "There are clearly more problems now than there seemed to be four years ago."

Drugs, health care

Investors in drug makers and health-care companies -- industries that are heavily represented in the Triangle -- are breathing easy, though, hopeful that whatever solutions Bush pursues will leave the companies undisturbed or possibly better off.

Under his administration, the government is unlikely to set price controls on prescription medicines, experts said, letting the free market set rates. It won't allow much, if any, importation of lower-cost drugs from other countries -- something Kerry supported.

The health-care industry pumped $56 million into the campaign coffers of Bush and other Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington group that tracks political contributions. Among the beneficiaries of his re-election are GlaxoSmithKline, which employs 6,000 in the Triangle, and Merck, which is building a vaccine manufacturing plant in Durham.

The White House has said it plans to restrain malpractice lawsuits, capping jury awards and cutting doctors' expenses. Proponents say that could help lower health-care costs. The Bush administration also is likely to back efforts to cut bureaucracy in the medical system. Bush said this year that he expects every patient to have an electronic medical record within 10 years, and he appointed a national coordinator for health information technology, David Brailer.

Bush even used the words "electronic medical record" on the campaign trail.

"That may be a little thing to everyone else, but we were dancing in the aisles," said Tom Skelton, chief executive of Misys Healthcare Systems. It is one of the nation's largest health-care information technology companies and employs about 750 workers at its Raleigh headquarters. Having the president back an idea "goes a long way to lending legitimacy to a product in a very immature market."

Skelton said he has spent more time in Washington during the past 12 months than in his entire career. With Bush back for another four years, Misys will deepen its ties in the capital and may invite members of Brailer's team down to Raleigh to learn more about the company, Skelton said.

Alphanumeric Systems also is positioned to benefit. The 400-employee Raleigh company handles technology needs for customers, building networks, maintaining computers and selling other services. It counts several health-care companies among its clients, including GlaxoSmithKline and numerous hospitals.

Others benefit

"There is a tremendous amount of costs in the infrastructure, the paperwork, if you will," said Darleen Johns, president of Alphanumeric. "We can see where the government may invest in the processes around health care ... and even give grants to companies around trying to streamline the processes."

Reduced costs could prompt drug and health-care companies to expand. Highwoods' Nashville, Tenn., portfolio has succeeded recently because of strong interest from health-care providers. Fritsch said he hopes to see that demand spread.

Perhaps the single biggest issue Bush will tackle is Social Security. The president has proposed privatizing portions of the federal retirement system, giving workers more control over their accounts. It has sweeping potential, changing the way people plan for their retirement and pumping billions of capital into the economy.

If people have more cash to invest, someone must manage it. North Carolina banks, including Wachovia, Bank of America and RBC Centura, could reap hefty fees helping people with their decisions.

The bottom-line goal of Bush's efforts on health care, Social Security and taxes is "to move to more of this ownership society," said Michael L. Walden, an economist at N.C. State University. Doing so "would help stimulate saving and investing, so there would be more money for entrepreneurs. This area is very entrepreneurial, so I think that would help."

Maybe at home. But some executives perceive potential problems overseas. Business is becoming more global. Companies in North Carolina increasingly are looking to establish foreign beachheads as Asian and other economies rev up. The president, in an indirect way, is key to those efforts.

"The perception that people outside the United States have of many Americans is created by the president," said Matthew Szulik, CEO of Red Hat, the Raleigh software company that has been expanding overseas. At Red Hat, "someone every week is traveling outside the United States, and the president's words, actions and policies impact how we are received."

(Staff writers Jack Hagel and Jean P. Fisher contributed to this report.)

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A rebuilt Fort Dobbs may rise

Nov. 7, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By KATHRYN WELLIN
 © Copyright 2004

STATESVILLE - What Fort Dobbs visitors see, if they bother to go at all, is no fort. In vacant fields sit an anachronistic log cabin and well.

Historic site manager Beth Carter sees something else: the French and Indian Waroutpost as it used to be, and will be.

A reconstructed fort. Archeology digs. Reenactments of Cherokee attacks and colonial life. A visitor's center and museum of the North Carolina frontier. A tourism draw pumping dollars into Statesville, Iredell County and the state.

"For so long, very little was known about the site, and folks just didn't realize how important the site is in North Carolina history," she said. "It's at the heart of this community, and the potential for heritage tourism is enormous because it's three miles from (Interstates) 77 and 40."

Other state officials at the Department of Cultural Resources agree with her. On Wednesday, they will meet in Statesville with the site's advocacy group, the Fort Dobbs Alliance, to kick off the redevelopment of North Carolina's only French and Indian war site into a living history attraction.

A revamped fort would be good for the area's economic development, said Larry Gutske, a professor at N.C. State University's Cooperative Research Center for Tourism. At Wednesday's meeting, he will present his economic impact study on Fort Dobbs. Redevelopment could draw between 20,000 and 50,000 visitors annually, compared with the current 5,700, he said.

But success will depend on a public/private partnership between the state, the alliance and the community, state officials say. That support is needed to convince legislators to fund the project for the long term, said Kay Williams, director of the state's historic sites.

Gov. Mike Easley gave the project a nod earlier this year by signing an agreement with 19 other states to promote the 250th anniversary of the war with tourism, economic and educational development projects.

The war was mainly a North American affair between the British and French colonists and both sides' Native American allies, but was also linked to worldwide battles for empire. Some historians believe the war paved the way for colonists to view themselves as separate from England.

The N.C. cultural resources department is "enthusiastic" about saving this history and reopening the site, Williams said. The state closed the site about two years ago to allow staff to concentrate on redevelopment.

In 1764, after the war ended, colonists decided the fort was no longer needed and dismantled it. Although the fort's footprint remained, not enough information was available for reconstruction.

By summer, the fort's dimensions will be known, when East Carolina University professor Lawrence Babits finishes his archeological study. That will also help estimate the cost and scope of the reconstruction.

The Land Trust of Central North Carolina is working with fort advocates to buy land around the site's 31 acres to stem an approaching subdivision and preserve archeological evidence.

There's much to be saved, Carter said. Recently, she found an 18th-century button on the grounds. In library research, she found a previously unknown letter from George Washington to the fort's commander.

"(People) don't realize that the guys that were stationed there walked all the way to the Canadian border to participate in the colonial war," she said. "People get out there and they're like, `Nothing's here.' "

News2Use

The meeting on Fort Dobbs' future is at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Statesville Depot, 111 Depot Lane off Shelton Avenue. The Fort Dobbs Alliance Inc.: P.O. Box 241, Statesville, NC 28677, (704) 873-5866, fortdobbs@bellsouth.net.

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Reading celebrates poet's first publication

Nov. 7, 2004
Go Triad.com
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

GREENSBORO — Having once managed several well-known restaurants, including the Rathskeller in Chapel Hill, Hal Sieber seems drawn to them to nourish his muse.

He prefers to write in eating places, the louder the better.

The buzz of people around him, even interrupting him, "stimulates my creativity," says Sieber, 73, who retired as editor but remains editorial page editor of the Carolina Peacemaker, the newspaper that’s aimed at Greensboro’s black community.

Sieber once did his writing in Harry’s, a famous Chapel Hill hangout whose clientele included the state’s most famous writer, Thomas Wolfe.

Since he moved to Greensboro 40 years ago, Sieber’s writing spots have included the old H&H Grill on Gorrell Street and the departed Waffle House on High Point Road.

Now, he writes in longhand in the coffee shop at Border’s, where on most afternoons he lowers his pen often to converse with people who rotate in and out of chairs at his table.

It’s only appropriate that Border’s will be the site Friday night of a Sieber poetry reading marking the 50th anniversary of his first book of poems, "In the Marian Years," a collection of 31 poems published by the late Orville Campbell’s Old Well Publishers in Chapel Hill.

A news release from the mid-1950s pasted into one of Sieber’s scrapbooks announces that "In the Marian Years" was being considered for the National Book Award for Poetry. Sieber didn’t win — Conrad Aiken did — but being nominated was an honor.

"In the Marian Years" was one of three books of verse by Sieber. The blurbs on one, "And Thursdays Are for Good," include:

"Brother Sieber sure can write" — Carl Sandburg

"A brave young poet" — Robert Frost

"These are love powers which exult and weep. They whisper bitterly, shout angrily, always singing in celebration of a long love." — Paul Green.

Wow.

Sieber wrote his first poem, called "Peace," at age 9. War became a topic of future poems, as well as injustices against black people that Sieber, as a white person, recognized. He’s proud of his liberalism and regards his support for racial integration in Greensboro, while a member of the Chamber of Commerce staff from 1966 to 1972, as one of his finest hours.

But speaking his mind in a clear fashion is one thing; writing poetry with clarity is another.

"In the Marian Years" includes a poem "A Cruel Imagery: to Dr. Albert Einstein" that Sieber sent to the great genius. Einstein replied with a thank-you letter but said he didn’t understand the poem.

Sieber now confesses some of his poems back then, as well as those of contemporaries, tended toward the obtuse.

"I think it got to be unnecessarily difficult," he says. "Poets were writing for themselves."

Sieber sacrificed a possible career in law for poetry, then sacrificed a career as a poet to do public relations for the N.C. Heart Association and the Greensboro chamber.

Since leaving the chamber, he has lived and worked in Greensboro’s black community, most of the time as a writer and editor of the Peacemaker. He also worked for Project Homestead, the nonprofit builder of affordable housing, but departed long before financial shenanigans bankrupted the organization.

Few people now remember that Sieber was a poet. Those who do know speak of him as a poet in the present tense, although his last book of poetry was published nearly 30 years ago.

"I think he’s a splendid poet and unfortunately overlooked by the establishment," says Robert Bayes, founder of the creative-writing program at St. Andrews Presbyterian College and winner of the N.C. Award for Literature in 1989. "His poetry is tight, well-organized, important in content. He should be more recognized."

Bayes and Sieber met in 1959 in Washington. Sieber had dropped out of law school at Chapel Hill after a year to accept an appointment as a literary consultant to the Library of Congress.

He was there the same time as another North Carolina poet, Randall Jarrell of Greensboro, who held the post that’s now called national poet laureate.

Sieber was on call at the library to write whatever those in power needed written. He did several quick speeches for Sen. John F. Kennedy.

He was dispatched to interview the expatriate American poet Ezra Pound, who had been accused of treason during World War II for doing propaganda broadcasts for Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Pound was confined to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, a Washington mental institution.

Robert Frost and other American poets urged the courts to free Pound, who by the late 1950s had been at St. Elizabeth’s 12 years.

Sieber, who was assigned to work with Frost and others to write a report on Pound, says he considered the poet only mildly insane.

"He was sort of crazy like a lot of people are a little crazy — and some have made it to the White House and other places," Sieber says.

The report for a congressional committee led to the courts releasing Pound, who returned to Italy to live out his life.

While in Washington, Sieber gave a poetry reading to an audience that included Allen Dulles. Was the nation’s top snoop there to check out Sieber as a possible subversive? After all, it was the red-hunting ’50s.

"No!" Sieber replies, sounding hurt. "He liked my poetry."

Sieber got to know all the major poets of the time, including Langston Hughes. He was close to Sandburg, the silver-haired writer who had grown up in Illinois but moved in 1945 to Connemara, a farm near Hendersonville, Sieber’s hometown.

As a teenager, Sieber wanted to meet Sandburg, famous not only for poems, but also for his six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln. Sieber mentioned his desire to a truck driver who picked up goat’s milk at Connemara.

"Hop on the truck," the driver said.

Sandburg told Sieber he wouldn’t read any of his poems until the boy read everything Sandburg had written.

When Sieber had done as ordered, Sandburg issued a final challenge. Drink a glass of goat’s milk. Sieber remembers the stuff as tasting "nasty." Sandburg digested Sieber’s poems.

Sandburg offered Sieber encouraging advice. Sieber returned to the farm occasionally and posed with Sandburg in a photo taken by the famous photographer Edward Steichen, Sandburg’s brother-in-law.

Sieber soon went off to Chapel Hill where he paid for his education by working in the Monogram Club, serving meals to football stars Art Wiener and Charlie Justice. He did such a good job restaurant owner Ted Danziger hired him to manage the new Ranch House restaurant.

Eventually, Sieber became general manager of all of Danziger’s restaurants, including the Rathskeller and the memorable Zoom-Zoom.

Except for two years in the Army from 1952 to 1954, Sieber spent 10 years in Chapel Hill at a time when it was a haven for radicals, young politicians-to-be and writers. Sieber wrote a poetry column, called "Franklin Street," after the town’s main thoroughfare, for the Chapel Hill newspaper.

He got to know Allard Lowenstein, a brilliant student and a liberal who years later would win election to Congress from New York, only to be murdered by one of his own followers.

Sieber debated Charles Kuralt, the future CBS journalist, and Communist Party member Junius Irving Scales, a Chapel Hill student before World War II and the son of the man who developed Greensboro’s Irving Park neighborhood.

He hobnobbed with Chapel Hill writers such as Betty Smith, author of the best seller "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," and Paul Green, whose play, "In Abraham’s Bosom," won the Pulitzer Prize in 1927 and whose outdoor dramas, including "The Lost Colony," remain popular. Sieber met Richard McKenna, who after a long stint in the Navy enrolled at UNC-CH and then wrote a novel "The Sand Pebbles," which became a best seller and a movie starring Steve McQueen.

During this time, Sieber’s own poems were winning praise. Richard Walser, an N.C. State English professor and literary historian, included Sieber’s works in an anthology of fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

"The voice of H.A. Sieber is the latest and most important in the more than 200 years of poetry in North Carolina," Walser wrote.

With reviews like that, Sieber should have stayed a poet. But by then he was married and a father. After his stint in Washington, he needed to earn a living. He entered public-relations work.

He sometimes asks what if he had stayed in Chapel Hill and devoted himself full time to poetry. But he realizes if he had, he would have missed working with Greensboro’s black community.

"I hope I made a contribution," he says.

Most of his writing energy now goes to a weekly quota of four editorials, one news story and a column for the Peacemaker. He also does research on Greensboro’s history, which has resulted in three pamphlets, including one on the history of the city’s black community, "White Water, Colored Water."

Sieber still writes poems on scrap paper, which he puts in boxes at his apartment across from Smith High School. He estimates the boxes contain a thousand poems.

Will he ever publish them?

"If I live long enough," he says.

He also sketches, and some of his drawings will be displayed at Friday’s reading. A piece of music based on a Sieber poem, arranged by the late Greensboro composer M. Thomas Cousins, also will be played.

Sieber’s daughter, Paula Sieber, will serve as master of ceremonies for the reading. Her 73-year-old father must wonder where the years have gone.

Paula Sieber was the inspiration for a poem 42 years ago, "A Lullaby for Paula."

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Local tobacco growers use buyout to diversify farms

Nov. 6, 2004
Asheville Citizen-Times
By John Boyle,
 © Copyright 2004

BURNSVILLE - For thousands of mountain farmers, tobacco has been the cash crop of choice for decades.

But all that's changing these days. For years their quota - the amount the government allows them to grow - has been cut drastically. And last month Congress passed a $10.1 billion tobacco buyout bill that will give them a payout but remove a price support system in place since the Depression.

In short, tobacco farmers see the writing on the wall: It's time to diversify or consider getting out of leaf production altogether.

"I've grown tobacco all my life, as much as 22 acres at one time. But I've only got five acres this year," Yancey County farmer Harold Buchanan said. "I don't think there's any future in it. I think it's just going to be the big companies controlling it."

With that in mind, Buchanan and partner David Bodford are going into the ornamental shrubbery business, thanks to a new grant program administered through the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service that's designed to help farmers in tobacco- growing regions diversify. Last year, the service, in partnership with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and HandMade in America, secured a $198,210 grant from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission and has disbursed 51 grants of $2,500 each this year to help farmers explore new options.

Exploring new options

At Bodford's place near Burnsville in Yancey County, he and his partner built a new greenhouse where they've seeded hundreds of rhododendron Catawbiense, the same variety that made Roan Mountain famous.

"I'm going to make it work," said Bodford, 39. "Any future at all in this will be better than the future in tobacco. Tobacco is just about over, I'm afraid, so we're just trying to get something started before everybody else does."

The extension service got 104 grant applications, awarding 54 percent of them to tobacco growers. The grants, which are geared toward "agricultural tourism and crop diversification," are not designed to finance the complete transition to a new product but rather provide seed money - sometimes quite literally.

"What we're doing is reducing the risk," said Erin Jasin, the western district project coordinator for agricultural tourism and crop diversification for the extension service. "We're helping them take the economic risk. The people I work for aren't asking to get rich."

Jasin is based in the Buncombe office but works with farmers in 15 western counties, including seven in Yancey County. The tobacco price support program worked well for decades, Jasin says, but it hurt growers in one crucial area.

"The tobacco program has handicapped people from going out and marketing their products," she said. "The overall grant is to provide some incentive money for farmers to try agri- tourism or alternative crops or some other enterprises."

Yancey County has about 350 tobacco growers, most producing a few acres of burley. It typically generates from $2.5 million to $4 million a year. Appalachian region will be hardest hit

Tobacco is big business in the mountains - every year about 4,000 mountain farmers sell their crop in two Asheville auction warehouses, typically generating $8 million to $10 million in revenue. Other growers contract directly with tobacco companies. In all, local growers tend about 7,000 acres of burley tobacco, which has been an economic mainstay since the late 1800s.

But mountain production doesn't come close to Kentucky and Tennessee, which have abundant flat land and larger farms.

"With the tobacco buyout, it's going to be very difficult for our producers in Western North Carolina to compete with growers in other areas," said Stanley Holloway, an extension agent in Yancey who helped write the grant.

Blake Brown, an agricultural economist with N.C. State University, agrees.

"When tobacco production is deregulated, the Appalachian region will see the greatest decline in tobacco production," he said. "Fortunately, farmers will have the buyout to help with the transition, but I think programs like (the agricultural tourism and crop diversification program) are very important to provide some seed money to look at other markets. I think these kinds of programs are great. The reality is, and what a lot of people don't realize, is that even if we didn't have the buyout, many of these farmers would've been facing this transition anyway."

That's because in recent years tobacco growers have seen their quotas cut in half. Bodford and Buchanan, who has 10 greenhouses for starting tobacco plants, say their sales of burley seedlings dropped from 650,000 plants two years ago to 350,000 last year.

At $40 per thousand plants, that's a $12,000 drop-off. They're looking forward to the ornamental business generating more cash flow than tobacco. Buchanan plans to use those 10 greenhouses for ornamentals production.

"I believe we're going to make more out of it - if we get into the market," Bodford said. "And the market's there."

Starting over

Farmers like Buchanan, Bodford and Carl Patterson, a Graham County tobacco farmer, know in some ways they're starting over.

"You got to learn a lot," said Patterson, who's grown tobacco every year but one out of the past 35. "When I really got started with this was this past spring. I had a few goats before then, but that was just something for my grandkids to show."

He's raised some cattle in the past, but goats are a different ballgame, and he's got to find that all-important market. But Patterson, who's subscribed to a magazine geared toward goat farmers, says the market is strong in North Carolina and America overall.

"We're way down (in production) - they're importing goat meat right now, so I think that's a good thing to get into," Patterson said.

Patterson, who also grows sweet corn, beans and potatoes, used his $2,500 grant for fencing and seeding a pasture. He bought his herd of 50 goats with his own money and says he never expected a big windfall from the grant.

"If they was going to give you a living, I'd take the money and forget the goats," Patterson said with a laugh.

For Paula Miller, one of the grant recipients who's not a tobacco grower (the grants are available to farmers in tobacco-growing regions), the money allowed her and her husband to get started on producing biodiesel, a fuel made from vegetable oil.

"It allowed us to do something either we never would've tried to do on our own or certainly not on this scale," Miller said.

They collect waste vegetable oil from local restaurants and combine it with a catalyst (methanol) to produce a fuel that any diesel vehicle can run on. Working out of their garage, they've produced 200 gallons so far.

The materials cost about 75 cents a gallon, and with labor they estimate their cost at $2.50 a gallon. But if biodiesel catches on (methanol comes from another renewable resource - corn), they expect the price to drop.

"It's the bigger picture," Miller said, noting that the product could help America kick its dependence on foreign oil. "It's 100 percent biodegradable, and farmers can grow all the ingredients."

Plenty to learn

Bodford and Buchanan, who used their grant to build a climate-controlled greenhouse, don't have any political concerns about their product. But they do have plenty to learn about growing ornamentals.

"It's just unfamiliar to you," Buchanan said. "We didn't know how to do it until we got going. Growing tobacco was no problem for us, but it took three times to get these going. But we got them going."

They know it may take a couple of years to get the ornamentals large enough to sell to wholesalers.

"This product is a lot different," Bodford said, standing next to plastic trays filled with tiny rhododendron just beginning to pop through the soil mix. "It's harder to grow - a lot more delicate, it takes longer and you've got to have more equipment to do it."

Bodford, who's worked in industrial maintenance at the Hickory Springs plant in Micaville, isn't afraid of a little hard work, though. And neither is Buchanan, whose weathered, lined face bears testament to a lifetime of hard farm work.

"I'm going to grow something," Buchanan said. "I'm not going to quit."

Contact Boyle at 232-5847 or JBoyle@CITIZEN- TIMES.com.

Grants continuing

The N.C. Cooperative Extension Service in 2005 will be awarding 30 more $2,500 grants through its agricultural tourism and crop diversification program. Applications are available beginning Dec. 1. Contact your countys cooperative extension service for information. To learn more about the program, visit www.ces.ncsu.edu/wncagoptions.

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Exam reveals victim's injuries

Nov. 6, 2004
News & Observer
By JENNIFER BREVORKA
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH -- A recently released autopsy report shows that a Marine suffered several deep lacerations and blunt-force injuries in addition to a close-range gunshot that killed him during a football tailgate party in September.

Medical examiners discovered that 2nd Lt. Brett Johnson Harman, 23, had a two-inch cut across his nose and cheek in addition to shallow cuts on his neck, according to the autopsy. Harman had long, parallel abrasions over his chest along with abrasions on his shoulder, face, neck and wrist. Officials also believe that a discolored black mark on Harman's left ankle might be a burn wound.

According to the toxicology report, Harman had a blood alcohol level of 0.17. In North Carolina it is illegal to drive with a blood alcohol level of .08 or above.

Harman and Kevin M. McCann, both 23, were gunned down in a parking area outside an N.C. State University football game Sept. 4. Officials charged two brothers, Timothy Wayne Johnson, 22, and Tony Harrell Johnson, 20, with two counts of first-degree murder.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill has not completed McCann's autopsy.

After the September slaying, conflicting reports arose about what led to the gunshots. Witnesses said the Johnson brothers exchanged punches with McCann and Harman in the afternoon after a carton of beer cans was thrown at Tony Johnson's car when he sped through a Trinity Road parking lot.

Johnson family members have said that Tony Johnson was later beaten by a group of men and that Timothy Johnson went to his car for a gun in an effort to break up the brawl.

Harman's brother in Illinois, Rob Harman, said Thursday that autopsy results showing deep cuts on Brett Harman's face show that McCann and his brother were the ones attacked.

Rob Harman said he learned about what transpired outside the game from investigators and witnesses. Brett Harman and McCann helped to stop the first scuffle that ensued when the Johnsons sped through the parking lot, Rob Harman said.

Later that afternoon, the Johnson brothers returned and tried to attack McCann with a broken beer bottle. Brett Harman tried to intervene and was shot, his brother said.

Rob Harman said his brother might have drunk alcohol while at the tailgate party but said he had never seen alcohol make his brother belligerent or confrontational.

"He's not a mean guy," Rob Harman said. "He's not going to bully people."

Defense attorney Joseph B. Cheshire V, who represents Timothy Johnson, said Friday that Harman's autopsy report "shed a significant light onto what I know happened."

The Raleigh attorney said that a fight broke out between Tony Johnson and a group of people, but the Johnson brothers did not leave the scene to get a gun.

"Clearly there was a confrontation," Cheshire said. "This confrontation where these two young men were unfortunately killed was brought on by them, not the Johnsons."

Cheshire added that Tony Johnson had received 30 stitches in his leg from what appeared to be a bottle slashing, which occurred during a fight before the shooting. The attorney said that he believed alcohol, and testosterone, played a role in what transpired before the shooting.

"These Johnson boys are not monsters," Cheshire said. "They were engaged in a very dangerous situation and should not be painted as monsters, and they should not be treated as monsters."

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Power-line plan jolts neighbors

Nov. 6, 2004
News & Observer
By JOSH SHAFFER
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH -- Johnny Wardlaw can see it now: rows of 125-foot power poles running along Trinity Road, just past the State Fairgrounds and a corner of his granddad's farm.

Progress Energy hopes to build a new 230-kilovolt transmission line that stretches four miles along a bustling commercial corridor -- infuriating Wardlaw and about two dozen landowners who have big plans to sell.

"It's going to look like a picket fence of big, tall poles," said Wardlaw, who along with his family owns about 19 acres of former farmland.

The trouble is, the affected landowners are pushing for a shorter, alternate route that would cut through a corner of Raleigh's Schenck Forest.

Hundreds of people regularly hike and walk their dogs there, and N.C. State University uses the forest for research. Cutting through that land is unacceptable to Progress Energy and the university, making the commercial land nearby the preferred choice.

"It's impossible to build transmission lines over long distances without having an impact," said Mike Hughes, Progress Energy spokesman. "Suffice it to say a number of state agencies request that we stay off the [Schenck Forest] land."

NCSU needs more power at its College of Veterinary Medicine, and rapid growth is expected in the area around the RBC Center. Progress Energy needs to get power to the area.

The company proposed several routes at a meeting in early 2003, including one plan to cut across the forest and another that would follow Edwards Mill Road.

It became clear, Hughes said, that the Schenck route would disturb sensitive land, and the city had named Edwards Mill Road as a pristine area.

So the Trinity Road route, which passes very few homes, seemed best. If approved, the lines would travel south down Blue Ridge Road, west down Trinity Road, then north along Interstate 40 to a new substation near Trenton Road.

A 230-kilovolt line is only about half as large as the most powerful ones Progress Energy builds, but it is still capable of going cross-country.

The state Utilities Commission must approve the plans. It will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday and again at 1 p.m. on Nov. 22.

Roundabout route

Meanwhile, about two dozen landowners have protested the plan through their Raleigh attorney, Robert Page.

To them, it makes no sense to snake around the city, hurting the value of dozens of properties just to spare some of N.C. State's open land.

"They're essentially building all the way around their elbow to get back to their thumb," Page said.

Page said the preferred route will clutter a main entrance to the State Fair. He also thinks the lines will be less reliable with so many twists and turns.

Schenck Forest is precious and should be avoided, he said, but it would be easy to angle the lines to the south and cut across more of N.C. State's land.

"There are straight lines they could take that would run across open field," he said.

The university wants the lines to power its veterinary college, and Blue Ridge Road would provide easy access, said Howard Harrell, NCSU's director of real estate. The Schenck Forest route wouldn't meet that need.

Underground option

Some suggest putting the lines underground. "These are the monsters," said Bill Luther, a real estate broker representing one of the landowners. "You don't put them where the maximum amount of people will see."

Underground lines aren't really out of sight, Progress Energy's Hughes said. They still require large amounts of right of way for maintenance and access, and burying them is too expensive to consider.

Progress Energy will compensate landowners for the right of way it will need, but Wardlaw said he still feels robbed.

He and his family plan to sell the land for the best possible price, but it's still a sentimental place. Wardlaw used to hold beach music concerts there.

Now, he fears, the only music a passer-by will hear is a persistent electric hum.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Transmission line meeting

WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday

WHERE: N.C. Utilities Commission

430 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh

Room 2115

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UNCC to develop meteorology degree

Nov. 6, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By STEVE LYTTLE
 © Copyright 2004

Here's a weather-related forecast you can count on -- Charlotte soon will be producing home-grown meteorologists.

The UNC Board of Governors has given UNC Charlotte approval to begin a meteorology degree program within its Department of Geography and Earth Sciences.

About 40 UNCC students already are taking weather-related classes, and the school is expected to have its first graduating meteorologists in May 2007.

"We will be able to meet the needs in a lot of areas," said Brian Etherton, a UNCC meteorology professor who will share much of the teaching duties initially with Walter Martin until additional staff members are hired in coming months. "We have a new TV weather network starting soon, and there is a growing need for people in the area of air quality control."

The National Weather Service said UNCC will become the fourth Carolinas college offering a meteorology degree, joining N.C. State University, UNC Asheville, and the College of Charleston.

Etherton, who has a doctorate in meteorology from Penn State University and has done extensive research on tropical weather systems, said UNCC began work on the program about a year ago. He and Martin, who has a doctorate in geography from the University of Tennessee and specializes in air quality control, then pitched the idea to state officials.

They got help from the home front.

"Eric Thomas of WBTV and John Wendel of WCNC each help support us through the application process," Etherton said. "They helped us point out the need to have a meteorology school in a large urban area like Charlotte."

The idea won final approval in September.

Some of UNCC's weather-forecasting graduates could find a home with NBC's Weather and Alert Channel, which will air on digital TV, starting in early 2005. The network will broadcast 24-hour weather information, based at NBC's news network studios in Charlotte, as a competitor to the Weather Channel.

Etherton said another area of opportunity for UNCC graduates will be in air quality control -- such as the role his wife, Dana, a meteorologist, has with Mecklenburg County's environmental health department.

"Dr. (Walter) Martin is one of the nation's leaders in that area," Etherton said. "Anytime a new business plans to locate, they need air quality control studies done by meteorologists."

The U.S. Air Force also might be interested in UNCC's meteorology graduates.

"The Air Force considers meteorology a high-demand career field," said Lt. Col. Peter Laden, professor of aerospace studies at UNCC. The Air Force has started a scholarship program at the school for meteorology students.

WBTV's Thomas said the new program is a big boost for the Charlotte area.

"I have encountered more than a few rising students interested in the earth sciences who did not have the resources to live away from home, in order to attend college," he said.

And, he added, Martin's work in air quality and atmospheric science studies "will develop fine young scientists."

Want to Know More?

For information about UNC Charlotte's meteorology program, contact the school's Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, at (704) 687-2293.

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Web site to help with buyout program

Nov. 6, 2004
Greenville Daily Reflector
By Ginger Livingston
 © Copyright 2004

A local Web site has been created to help people learn about the tobacco buyout program approved by Congress last month.

The site, created by local Cooperative Extension Director Mitch Smith, features answers to frequently asked questions and links to the Farm Service Agency, and will be updated as sign-up details become available.

The Web site address is www.ces.ncsu.edu/pitt/ag/tobacco.

"This legislation is unprecedented," Smith said. "It's so important in shaping our local economy for years to come and wise decisions have to be made."

Since Congress passed the buyout in October, Smith's office, along with the Farm Service Agency, has fielded questions about who qualifies for the buyout — tobacco growers and quota holders — and when sign-up will occur — January at the earliest.

"We are telling people to just be patient, that whatever role (Farm Service Agency) may have in this we will work to do it timely and accurately," said Jeanne Setser, local FSA executive director.

Another frequently asked question is when will payments be dispersed, Smith said. During other farm buyout programs, most payments came six months after the law was signed into law. Smith estimates tobacco payments could begin in late April or early May. Since most people contacting Smith and Setser's offices have similar questions, the extension Web site includes the most frequently asked questions about the buyout and the answers.

It has links to the federal Farm Service Agency's tobacco buyout Web site and several Web sites at North Carolina State University with buyout information.

One of the most important questions farmers and quota holders will face when applying for the buyout is whether they want to receive the money in a lump sum payment or over a 10-year period, Smith said.

The Pitt County Web site links to a site prepared by Guido van der Hoven, an extension specialist who has prepared an Excel spreadsheet to show farmers what cash they will have available after paying taxes under the two scenarios.

The buyout program has also produced unknowns for tobacco farming, Smith said.

Land owners want to know how they should set a rental price for their land now that quota is no longer a factor. Farmers are trying to determine what price manufacturers will offer for their leaf next year and if they can afford to grow a crop at that price, Smith said.

"I expect, because of the quality of our leaf, and having some carry over (leaf grown this year but not sold), you'll start seeing offers in December," Smith said.

Based on information he is gathering from within the tobacco industry, Smith estimates the average tobacco price will be $1.44 a pound for the first few years — down 11 cents from this year's price of a $1.85 a pound. He expects the price to eventually settle around $1.24 a pound.

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Kitty Hawk pitches in on transportation study

Nov. 6, 2004
Outer Banks Sentinel
By JULIA LEDOUX
 © Copyright 2004

Solidarity ruled Monday night in Kitty Hawk, as town council members unanimously endorsed several recommendations from town staffers and the planning board.

The council has appeared to be split into two sides for much of the past year, as Mayor Bill Harris and council members Doug Seay and Donna Trivette prevailed over fellow board members Cliff Perry and Ervin Bateman in any number of 3-2 votes.

That was not the case Nov. 1, as the board began by unanimously approving a motion by Seay to follow a staff recommendation to require the owner of a Hurricane Isabel damaged property at 4807 N. Virginia Dare Trail to remove the condemned structure.

Owner Robert J. Wallace indicated to town staffers that he hoped to use the structure as an accessory building. But in a memo to the board chief enforcement officer Stephen Smith indicated that in order to be classified as an accessory building under CAMA rules, the structure is required to have a footprint of less than 100 square feet and be subordinate to a principle structure.

"This structure has a footprint of approximately 275 square feet and the principle structure was destroyed over 40 years ago," noted Smith.

"The highest tax evaluation found by the LPO is $1,500 approximately 10 years ago," said Smith.

Wallace is also prevented from using the property for a storage building or other similar structure "due to the inability to place any structure on the property without altering the first line of stable vegetation," Smith continued. "This dune system runs along the entire length of the property."

Wallace does face fines, but Seay's motion included a provision that will allow council to consider waiving the penalties if the structure is torn down.

In other action, council members unanimously adopted the preliminary and final subdivision plat for Sea View Place, an eight lot subdivision to be located on Eckner Street and Summer Lane at the site of what is currently the Sea Scape Golf Course driving range.

The board also endorsed the town's hazard mitigation plan and also approved a mutual aid agreement with the Southern Shores, Duck and Colington Volunteer Fire Departments.

Police Chief David Ward's recommendation for designating a no parking area on the east and west sides of N. Smith Street also received a greenlight from the board.

Council also agreed to provide the town's portion of the 10 percent local match recommended by the Outer Banks Transportation Task Force to cover the town's share of a proposed traffic study that will be conducted by the North Carolina State University Institute for Transportation Research and Education.

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Manteo moves forward with waterfront plans

Nov. 6, 2004
Outer Banks Sentinel
By GINA L. HARRIS
 © Copyright 2004

Manteo Board of Commissioners voted Wednesday night to "ground" the town's membership in the First Flight Society.

"Last year, we realized the town was spending a lot by making contributions to non-profits with only one thousand people to tax. I certainly support First Flight...But it's wrong to tax people for this," said Mayor John Wilson.

The remainder of the consent agenda was approved and included a funding request to establish underground utilities in the historical sites of downtown Manteo. The resolution asking for the funding was submitted to Sen. Marc Basnight by resolution.

"It's been awhile since we've asked Raleigh for funding," Wilson said. Dominion Power is working on cost estimates to remove three electrical poles at the entrance of the Elizabeth II.

"It's been a long-term project," Wilson said, of the effort.

The board approved, with conditions, the site plan recommended by the Planning Board for Haven Creek Missionary Baptist Church. Landscaping and parking issues were among those addressed in the conditions.

A refund of $2,400 for over payment of water tap fees by Shallowbag Bay Club was approved by the full board. The contractor had requested water service for 27 taps but used only 25.

Mayor Pro Tempore Dell Collins was nominated to continue her term on the Dare County Tourism Board. Commissioner Larry Belli was the second nominee. The current term expires on Dec. 31.

In the town manager's November report, the mayor and board were advised that contracts for the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund Grant were finalized with the primary contractor Hobbs, Upchurch, & Associates. The North Carolina State University School of Design Professors will join the team as consultants. Dr. David Stein and Dr. Hal House were added to the grant study by an amendment the board approved.

"What they bring to the table is simply the way we can integrate the storm water management system in the least disruptive and most environmentally sensitive way," said Town Manager Kermit Skinner.

"Traditionally, you run everything to the lowest point. But [how to do it] without having to dig up all the streets," he said.

The $600,000 grant will fund the study. The project implementation may cost $2 to $3 million, Skinner said. Hobbs, Upchurch, & Associates, one of the state's largest civil engineer firms, has the ability to put together the package when it goes to the state, he said.

CAMA permits have been received for the waterfront improvement project, and the cemetery improvements are the brick columns in the new section have been completed and the damaged cedar removed. More brick columns will be installed along Wingina Avenue.

The town has received the assistance of the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and North Carolina Department of Corrections (NCDC) in cleaning out storm water systems during the past month. NCDOT used heavy equipment to clear obstructions from the larger waterways. NCDC has used inmate crews to clear smaller ditches.

Wifi, or wireless Internet access, may soon reach residents. The board approved Wilson's continuing negotiation with Charter Communication to provide wireless broadband service at no cost to the waterfront and Cartwright Park areas of the town. Charter may provide limited wireless broadband service town-wide.

The town manager was directed by the board to pay up to $912.50 to participate in a project identified by the Transportation Task Force to examine how to best develop and implement county-wide transportation options. TTF, a sub-committee of the Dare County Transportation Advisory Board, has identified a NCDOT grant that, if approved, will pay 90 percent of the project cost. If the grant is awarded, the matching funds will be divided evenly among the eight jurisdictions -- Dare and Currituck counties, and the municipalities.

A discussion ensued for possible prorated fees based on population, revenues or tax base. Commissioner H.A. Creef noted "time is of essence" but felt the division of costs was inequitable. Commissioner Lee Tugwell, also, initially opposed the fee for the same reasons.

"I know the grant will address the major transportation artery [on the mainland]," Wilson said.

The Chelsey Mall fire lane signage was revisited. After the October board meeting, Chief of Police F.T. D'Ambra ceased giving citations to vehicles parked or standing in front the post office and grocery store.

D'Ambra's officers, initially, began handing out warning citations after the mall's owners asked for the town's help in curbing violators.

Many local residents were accustomed to parking in the fire lane and running in the stores located at the strip mall. After much discussion, at the death of at least one motion, the board approved by a vote of 6-2, No Parking Fire Lane signage facing the street on the building and columns. Tugwell and Etheridge voted against the ordinance. Zoning will now enforce the fire lane code.

The commissioners congratulated Collins on a successful event at Cartwright Memorial Park Oct. 30.

"What made it special was lots of local people," said Etheridge.

"Thank you, especially the commissioners, for furnishing everything...and making it a success," said Collins.

The board has asked the police chief to speak with a resident who is parking his oversized commercial vehicle, at night, in the right of way. The owner is parking in front of his home.

Complaints have been received that the oversized vehicle is a potential road hazard.

Two Manteo police officers will receive their Advanced Law Enforcement Certificate, D'Ambra wrote in his report to the mayor and board. This is the highest certificate for law enforcement officers in the state.

The town has asked Assistant Town Manager and Finance Officer Shannon Twiddy to provide figures on what it will cost the town to give a commercial water rate to non-profits instead of the institutional rate they are presently charged. There are approximately 15 non-profits, Twiddy reported.

The Manteo Masonic lodge has approached Commissioner David Farrow. The Hotline, churches, and the Masonic lodge also would benefit if the town approves the rate change.

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Meandering power line irks property owners

Nov. 5, 2004
Triangle Business Journal
By Amanda Jones
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH - Property owners near the RBC Center are opposing Progress Energy's plan to build a meandering 4.3-mile transmission line along Trinity Road for a new substation near Trenton Road.

The group argues that other routes would be more efficient and would have less impact on their property values. A hearing before the North Carolina Utilities Commission is scheduled for Nov. 9.

A filing before the utilities commission was made on behalf of at least 12 property owners, though others could join the action.

Progress Energy wants to build a $4 million, 230-kilovolt substation that would accommodate anticipated commercial and residential growth around the RBC Center. The route of a transmission line, which would cost another $10 million, from an existing substation off Blue Ridge Road has been debated for two years due to environmental and property owners' concerns.

The shortest route for the transmission line would stretch only about 2.5 miles along Edwards Mill Road and through North Carolina State University's Schenck Forest.

But Progress Energy spokesman Mike Hughes says the state, which owns much of the pristine property used by university agriculture researchers around Edwards Mill Road, Raleigh city leaders and local homeowners lobbied to keep the 100-foot power poles and lines away from residences and away from designated natural areas.

Hughes says that more than 100 options were considered for the transmission line's path. "This is an area where we anticipate a lot of additional growth, and we have to plan years in advance," he says. The area is currently being served by a substation on Evans Road in Cary and the substation on Blue Ridge Road.

Progress Energy conducted a public meeting in January 2003 for local landowners who would be impacted by the transmission line's path and presented plans for the project.

"The feedback was as close to unanimous as we could get," he says. "We worked many months with state agencies and with private property owners for the best possible route."

Hughes says most property owners wanted to keep the lines away from homes and out of Schenck Forest. Raleigh city leaders also told Progress Energy that Edwards Mill Road has been declared a pristine area and a transmission line would not be desirable.

"It's impossible to find a route that will not affect some individual," Hughes says. "Sometimes the direct route is virtually impossible to take. We try the best we can to be responsive ... and balance feedback with operational needs to find the best possible solution."

Under the current plan, the line would run along the outskirts of Blue Ridge Road, around commercial properties at West Chase office park, in front of the State Fairgrounds, along the length of Trinity Road, across Interstate 40 to the proposed Trenton Road substation site near the intersection of I-40 and Wade Avenue.

John Wardlaw of Raleigh, one of the affected property owners, says that route makes little sense. The line would border his family's land near the intersection of Blue Ridge Road and Trinity Road that has been owned by members of the John Richard Medlin family since the 1880s. Medlin was Wardlaw's grandfather.

"There are a lot of changes happening over here," Wardlaw says. "Why jeopardize commercial development? This will make Trinity Road look like an industrial area. Why? Common sense says they wouldn't bring it around commercial buildings already there."

Robert Page, a lawyer with Crisp, Page & Currin in Raleigh, is representing Wardlaw's family and the others who own land that borders the transmission line's proposed path. He says the proposed route not only would be more expensive but also would be less reliable because it would require more distance and more turns.

"Why do all this?" Page asks. "Why come so close to so many existing structures? If this is supposed to be a gateway to the fairgrounds, is this really the kind of visual impression we want to make?"

Progress Energy plans to start construction of the substation and transmission line in late 2005, with completion in 2006. Poles would be spaced between 400 and 700 feet apart and would stand about 100 feet tall. The company anticipates the need for another substation near the NCSU veterinary school property.

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People

Nov. 8, 2004
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

James M. Davis Jr. of West End has been selected as the first recipient of the N.C. State Engineering Foundation Board Outstanding Service Award. Davis, former senior vice president of power operations for the former Carolina Power & Light Co., is a 1958 graduate in mechanical engineering at NCSU. He served on the foundation's board of directors for 16 years and was president from 1998 to 2000.

L. George Wilson, vice provost for international affairs, is one of two recent recipients of Washington State University's Alumni Achievement Awards. Wilson was honored along with Norman E. Looney at a reception in October. The two were horticulture students at Washington State in the 1960s and went on to serve simultaneously as presidents of the world's most prestigious horticultural societies, the American Society for Horticultural Science and the International Society for Horticultural Science. Wilson joined NCSU's horticultural science faculty in 1975.

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NCSU gallery salutes 20 years

Nov. 8, 2004
News & Observer
By Michele Natale
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH--The presents were already unwrapped by the time the party started. Inside the Gallery of Art & Design at N.C. State University, they were on display for more than 400 guests -- arts patrons, collectors, artists, arts administrators and admirers -- who had come to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Friends of the Gallery.

These gifts of art comprised North Carolina pottery, studio and fine manufactured furniture, Tim Lazure's leaflike silver bowl, a 19th-century star pattern quilt, cast glass, photographs by Caroline Vaughan and Carolyn DeMerritt, a Maud Gatewood painting and watercolor as well as a pair of miniature folk art objects: a church and a house that sat atop pedestals.

"I gave those to the gallery," said proud onlooker W. Steven Burke, whose collection of miniature houses numbers more than 500. "I gave these because [gallery director] Charlotte Brown and the Gallery of Art & Design are very good at bringing the American imagination to North Carolinians, and it's welcome to be part of that undertaking."

Brown had called on Burke, who with partner Randy Campbell has been acquiring these objects since 1985, to donate items to the collection for the gallery's anniversary celebration and an exhibition called "20/20 Vision." Brown initially hoped for 20 new works and was stunned when about 100 objects from 35 donors were given.

That's the kind of friends an art institution needs.

Friends of the Gallery has grown from a dozen members in 1984 to about 250 today. The group has provided funds and located donors of the decorative arts and crafts that make the gallery a unique resource in the Triangle. In two decades, the collection has swelled from 170 objects to more than 20,000 -- ceramics, textiles, furniture, glass, wood, paintings, silver, photography, Southern folk art and more.

The anniversary gala last month celebrated success and gave the spotlight to new gifts plus 20 works selected by Friends members Melissa Peden, a 2003 Raleigh Medal of the Arts recipient, and Joseph Rowand, owner of Somerhill Gallery in Chapel Hill, to represent purchases of special significance. The gallery can mount whole shows out of categories or subgroups of certain collecting categories, so the "20/20 Vision" show itself is a small but tempting sampler of the types of works the gallery collects.

An arrangement of beautifully woven Cherokee baskets made of river cane opens the show. Possessing a pleasing, slightly squared form, their subtle geometric patterning plays natural golden cane color off of slightly deeper brown dyes.

Traditional forms

A series of ceramic vessels represents current North Carolina potters who carry on the traditional forms popularized by the Seagrove-area potteries, such as Jugtown. Ben Owen III, a third-generation North Carolina potter, carries his family's traditions on and brings them forward with the consciousness of formal university study in art. A Pamela Owens vase of Asian-influenced form is decorated in the renowned Chinese Blue glaze, a marvelous Jugtown formulation that is predominantly turquoise but admits deep magenta colorations in wood firings. The fluted lines of her son Travis Owens' 2004 tea set and tray hark back to a vintage era, but are distinguished by flourishes that are his own.

Other notable ceramics include Michael Sherrill's brilliant blue barium-glazed matched bottles, Robert Keith Black's minimal forms, Tom Spleth's abstractly decorated vessel and two Mark Hewitt great pots, contemporary takes on the state's strong clay traditions.

A clean-lined chest of drawers on a stand, circa 1950, from Founders Furniture lets the beauty of the exquisitely matched Brazilian rosewood panels star in its design. It's an example of the importance furniture manufacture has held in the state. The languorous arabesques of Gebruder Thonet's Rocking Sofa, after 1880, are sheer delight.

A section of the exhibit is dedicated to folk, or outsider, art with examples from the famed Howard Finster, Mose Tolliver and Annie Tolliver, and James Harold Jennings, who is represented by a whimsical carved and painted wooden crown and a 1990 sculpture, "Bully Gits Saton," which depicts the devil held down by a female wrestler.

Some works seem to defy their materials. Kristina Madsen's "Cabinet on a Frame," though made of carved and stained wood, looks almost as if it is crafted of tooled leather. A bleached and sandblasted vase of locust burl wood looks like a shell eroded by time and the sea. Diane Bank's vessel of sewn and beaded fabric apes thrown clay or carved wood, while Patti Lechman's "Smadhu" unexpectedly carves form out of tightly knotted fibers.

The wonderful Manuel Alvara Bravo photograph "Portrait of the Eternal (Woman Brushing Her Hair)" was one of the special gifts Peden and Rowand selected for the show. Addressing the gala guests, Peden described their carte-blanche romp through more than 5,000 square feet of works in storage as "a concentrated field day for two visual junkies."

An art wish list

Charlotte Brown has guided the gallery's direction for 23 years. While she is thrilled with the growth, she sees gaps in the collection -- and wasn't shy about issuing a printed wish-list at the gala.

On it are 20th-century high style manufactured furniture and studio furniture by the likes of Sam Maloof, George Nagashima, Wendy Maruyama and Wendell Castle. More metals, particularly 19th-century Southern silver (of which an important new gift is represented in the "20/20" show) and contemporary metals. Fiber and beadwork by Joyce Scott, Ed Rossbach, Lenore Tawney and Katherine Westphal. Finally, Brown would love to have more documentary photography from North Carolina and the South since 1900.

In her plans for additions, Brown considers what is being collected by other Triangle art institutions. The gallery has African objects, West African and Moroccan textiles as well as some ceramics, "but we are in a holding pattern to see where the N.C. Museum of Art goes with this kind of collecting, as well as N.C. Central, trying not to overlap where possible," Brown said via e-mail.

For that reason, the gallery does not collect contemporary or modern 20th-century American painting or sculpture, areas where NCMA, the Ackland at Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Nasher Museum of Art (opening next year at Duke University) are likely to excel. The exception is works by North Carolina painters, particularly works on paper, when their makers have connections to NCSU's School of Design.

It was Brown who founded the Friends of the Gallery. At the time, the institution was then known as the Visual Arts Center and objects were displayed in cases in the north and south lounges of the Talley Student Center. By 1991, $2.2 million in private funds had been raised for the 18,000-square-foot exhibition, office and storage space that now piggybacks the Student Center.

Today, the gallery operates on a $290,000 budget -- barely up from 1996's $250,000 budget -- created mostly from student fees. That is why the Friends resources and gifts are so important.

"Now that there is truly a collection that is deep and broad," Brown says, "all of us are in the process of learning more and more about its use as a research and teaching opportunity, and helping faculty and students learn to use its resources."

WHAT: "20/20 Vision."

WHEN: Through Dec. 15. Hours are Wednesday-Friday, noon-8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2-8 p.m.

WHERE: Gallery of Art & Design, NCSU, Raleigh.

COST: Free.

CALL: 515-3503; www.ncsu.edu/ gallery.

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Grief fueled mother's odyssey

Nov. 8, 2004
News & Observer
By BONNIE ROCHMAN
 © Copyright 2004

On Tuesday, Rabah Samara, 27, is scheduled to stand trial on felony hit-and-run charges.

He is charged in the death of Stephen Gates, a noted Tar Heel Sports Network reporter, who was Samara's age when he died alone last year in the star-speckled darkness on the asphalt of Interstate 40.

Gates' mother, Pat, plans to be at the courthouse in Hillsborough, sitting in the front, as she has through nearly a dozen hearings. She will be wearing Stephen's chunky class ring, glinting Carolina blue on her right ring finger, offering silent testimony to what it means to lose your firstborn.

She will be there to see whether justice will be done. But what is more important to her than a prison sentence is another kind of justice, not necessarily the sort meted out in a courtroom.

She wants Samara and Emily Caveness, the young woman who was driving the car that hit Stephen, to take responsibility, then take action. She wants them to vow to be the kind of person her son was.

* * *

It was past 2 a.m. on an October morning when Stephen Gates pulled over to change a flat where Interstates 85 and 40 diverge near Hillsborough. Another vehicle's headlights raked at the darkness. Then the car slammed into Gates. His body thudded more than half the length of a football field away.

The second vehicle, a Cadillac Escalade, pulled over, about 200 feet beyond where Gates lay. Driver and passenger made a quick switch, then sped home to Raleigh.

That decision not to stop resulted in felony hit-and-run charges for Samara and Caveness. Caveness, the driver, told officials that she wanted to stay at the scene but that Samara, the friend who switched seats with her, made the decision to drive on.

In August, Caveness accepted a plea bargain, admitting guilt to a misdemeanor in exchange for agreeing to testify against Samara.

Samara, a Jordanian national, faces up to 10 months in prison and could be deported, Orange-Chatham County District Attorney Carl Fox said.

* * *

Pat Gates is proudest of her son's relationship with a 13-year-old boy in Carrboro who had lost his father. When Stephen got together through a volunteer program with Steven Moore, they spent most of their time shooting hoops. Then they would swig Gatorade and talk.

"He liked doing stuff with me," Steven Moore said. "I was surprised because I didn't think he'd really like me."

There was advice about school and good grades, and the observation that hard work trumps talent. The young Steven listened and didn't roll his eyes.

"I miss his jokes," Steven said. "They weren't really funny, but they were his jokes."

Because her son made a difference in someone else's life, Pat Gates, 57, is asking Samara and Caveness to do the same.

"I will them to be good people," Gates said, "because I want them to take up what they've taken away. They have to live a life worthy of the one they've taken. They have to find their own way to make the world a better place."

* * *

Scholars and legal experts have a name for what Pat Gates seeks. It's called restorative justice, and in recent years it has burgeoned in popularity as people, frustrated with the impersonal resolutions of the court system, searched for alternatives. The underlying concept is that crime is a wound and justice should be a balm.

To achieve that, the person harmed and the person who did the harm meet to talk about what happened. The goal: acknowledgment of responsibility, apologies and, above all, answers.

As a concept, restorative justice has roots in many cultures, said Ann Warner Roberts, a senior fellow in restorative justice at the University of Minnesota. There are now hundreds of programs around the country, including several in North Carolina.

When both parties embrace the philosophy, Warner Roberts said, restorative justice can be therapeutic. "At the very least, we hope they'll come to a better understanding of each other," she said.

That's what Pat Gates envisioned when she nearly bumped into Samara after an April hearing at the Wake County Courthouse.

They both started talking at once, according to a reconstruction written by a friend who accompanied Gates that day. Gates and Samara called it accurate.

Samara, tall and sinewy with deep-set brown eyes, told Gates he had lost 15 pounds. He couldn't sleep, he said. "I did not kill your son," he said. "My mother would be suffering too if anything like this had happened to me. I'm so sorry about your son."

Gates, short and blond, wearing Stephen's too-big class ring, told Samara her family forgave him. "We all make mistakes," she said. "You must forgive yourself, but to do that you must take responsibility. ... We want you to prove by your good works that you deserve to live in place of our son. Pick an important, a really good, thing to do to help make the world a better place."

They hugged. They both were crying, Samara said this week at a restaurant on Hillsborough Street where he is the manager.

But Samara is still confused. "I don't know how you can forgive yourself for something you haven't done," he said.

He said he thought the Escalade had hit a tire, or maybe a deer. He was disoriented, he said, drunk and asleep in the passenger seat when the impact occurred.

Since the accident, he said he has quit drinking and hanging out with friends who do. Gates' message resonated, he said.

"I told her I feel I need to be twice as good," he said. "Ask any of my friends. I help people. I give hitchhikers rides. I stop and help people with flat tires.

"I could have been the one changing the tire."

Gates has not gotten as far in her quest with Caveness, a senior at N.C. State University who stood, pretty but pale, at the August hearing. She said Caveness has never glanced at her, though district attorney Fox said he had a letter of apology from Caveness in his files. Ann Petersen, her attorney, would not comment.

* * *

Stephen Gates' face was nowhere near as familiar as his voice. Anyone who followed UNC-CH sports on the radio would have recognized it. He was the sideline reporter for football, the announcer for women's basketball and men's baseball, the scoreboard and post-game radio call-in host for men's basketball.

It was a voice that reminded Mick Mixon, color analyst for the Tar Heel Sports Network, of chocolate milk. "It was smooth; it was sweet; it went down easy."

Gates cobbled a career from his UNC broadcasting and play-by-play work for the Burlington Indians minor league baseball team. He also served as director of media relations for two independent baseball leagues. He lived for sports.

He also died for it.

He was killed on his way home from visiting friends in Greensboro. He couldn't stay through the weekend; he had to work the UNC-Virginia football game later that day.

At that game, there would be no sideline reporter. Nor was there one for the rest of the season, in tribute.

* * *

In correspondence about Stephen or the trial, Pat Gates signs herself "Stephen Gates's Mom." "Mom" is capitalized, a badge of honor.

She schedules dentist appointments and vacations around court appearances. This past year she has logged entire days on wooden benches, to show a judge that someone cares, that her son wasn't just a case number. She waits and she watches and she learns.

In the months after her son's death, Pat Gates tried to heal. One thing that made her feel better was connecting with Stephen's world. So the family established a scholarship at UNC's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where Stephen graduated in 1998. So far, $48,000 has been collected.

Inside the school, there is a small wooden display case touting the scholarship. It contains a picture of Stephen broadcasting, headphones on, cheeks rounded in a faraway smile. There are baseball media guides he wrote, his 2002-03 UNC-CH basketball media pass and the golden Telly Award, a prestigious broadcasting prize he won in 1999. Pat Gates visits the display case whenever she goes to Chapel Hill from her home in Greensboro.

Gates and her husband recently dropped by the exhibit before attending the UNC-Miami football game. There was a new reporter on the sidelines. Gates avoided looking for him. Instead, she clung to her memories.

Nursing a broken ankle, Gates almost didn't make the trip. But she's glad she did. UNC's victory was thrilling, and being in the stadium where Stephen spent so much time was comforting.

Even though her son wasn't offering commentary, she said the game was the best one of her life.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

The Stephen Gates Memorial Scholarship-Internship is earmarked for an electronic communication student in the UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication who is interested in sports journalism. Tax-deductible contributions to can be sent to: Stephen Kennedy Gates Memorial Scholarship Fund, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, UNC-Chapel Hill, CB 3365, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.

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Friends, critics size up Burr

Nov. 8, 2004
News & Observer
By VALERIE BAUERLEIN
 © Copyright 2004

When he won the U.S. Senate race Tuesday, Richard Burr earned the approval of more than 1.7 million of the state's voters.

But he remains somewhat of an unknown quantity to many North Carolinians, who find themselves asking: Who is Richard Burr, and what kind of senator might he be?

His colleagues say he will work hard, just as he dug into committee assignments in the U.S. House for 10 years.

His backers say he will be pro-business, pro-life and pro-North Carolina, coming home nearly every weekend.

And his critics say he will be more conservative than moderates ever dreamed and will continue to push for business ahead of the environment, special interests ahead of the consumer.

Ask anyone who knows Burr, even Democrats, to describe him. Among the first things they'll say will be: He's likable; he's confident.

Burr has a gift for sales. He was a national sales manager for an appliance supplier.

Tom Fetzer, Burr's old friend and Wake Forest University roommate, once worked with Burr at a men's clothing store, "a blue-blazer and button-down kind of place."

"He's a natural," said Fetzer, a former Raleigh mayor. "All the people gravitated to him."

In the race, businesses supported him. Some of the state's top corporate leaders were on his campaign team, including Bob Ingram, former chairman of GlaxoSmithKline. The state Chamber of Commerce has already said it will be calling on Burr to push its legislative priorities.

Burr took more money from special-interest groups than any other U.S. Senate candidate -- more than $2.5 million -- this election cycle. Much of that money was from pharmaceutical companies, tobacco interests, lumber, gas, oil.

He has pledged to be a friend to business and to be loyal to President Bush's agenda and to the Republican leadership.

But U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger of Hickory warns that Burr is his own man, a fact Ballenger said he learned the hard way. Ballenger is one of the House whips, responsible for corralling members who buck the party line.

Burr voted with the Republican leadership 96 percent of the time this year, but Ballenger said he had to sit Burr down a couple of times. It didn't do any good.

"That other 4 percent, some of them were really big bills," Ballenger said. He said Burr has gone his own way on trade and other issues when he felt called to do so.

Democrats said throughout the election, in repeated mail and TV advertising campaigns, that Burr would be captive to the special interests who gave him money.

Burr has environmental groups worried because of his past voting record. The League of Conservation Voters, made up of members of the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, targeted eight legislators for defeat. Burr was the only one who won.

"We always try and be magnanimous at this point and hope he'll reconsider the positions he took in the House," said Mark Longabaugh, the league's executive director. But he's not optimistic.

Voters who favor abortion rights also say they are worried about Burr, as he has often spoken about the need to nominate conservative judges, particularly to the U.S. Supreme Court. They see overturning Roe v. Wade on his agenda.

Burr was relaxing with his family over the weekend and had his phones off. But Burr spokesman Doug Heye had answers for his boss's critics.

On the environment, Burr has opposed some offshore drilling measures. He favors drilling in Alaska only in a small area, Heye said.

As for abortion: "It wasn't an issue that was necessarily stressed in the campaign, but Richard has a pro-life record. That's something the majority of North Carolinians supported in his candidacy."

Work ethic praised

Wanda Merschel represents a left-leaning ward on the Winston-Salem Board of Aldermen, a district where Burr's parents live. She is an unapologetic Democrat who admits a few mixed feelings but is glad Burr won.

"I've seen him work, and I know the work ethic," Merschel said.

Burr has worked closely with the city on economic development. He has given officials the straight story on grants and federal funding, even when the news wasn't good.

She knows he is conservative on social issues. "If you support 100 percent of what any politician tells you, you're stupid," Merschel said. "There's always going to be something you don't agree with. But I think he does a good job in representing this area."

Burr heads to Washington in a week for orientation to the Senate. The transition from the chaotic House to the refined Senate can be like moving from a rugby team to a tennis team.

Rep. Billy Tauzin, a Republican from Louisiana, describes the House as "organized team assault," a battle of getting the forces moving in the same direction and avoiding too many casualties.

The Senate? A "minefield of egos," Tauzin said, requiring long-term strategy and in-depth understanding of what people want.

Tauzin bumped Burr up to a key leadership position early on, past four lawmakers who were waiting in line. Tauzin, who retires this year, said he thinks the Senate is a place that plays to Burr's strengths.

"It's hard not to like Richard Burr even if you disagree with him vehemently," Tauzin said. "He's got an amazing ability to stay pleasant under unpleasant circumstances."

Burr, the freshman

New senators traditionally keep their heads down at first, even the famous ones, like Elizabeth Dole, or Hillary Rodham Clinton. Political scientist Andrew Taylor describes it as a "culture of deference," where Burr will blend in for a while.

Burr has said he would like to continue working on economic issues and is lobbying for seats on the Intelligence and Finance committees.

"I expect him to be a good foot soldier for the Republican majority," said Taylor, of N.C. State University.

However, Taylor said, Burr has proved his ability in the House to carve out issues for himself, such as modernizing the Food and Drug Administration. Taylor said he expects Burr to pick an issue to own, after he gets used to the new job and ramps up his office.

Burr has not set out a lot of specific plans yet. Broadly, he supports the Republican agenda and has said he will push for expanding new jobs, cutting health costs and boosting the military.

The broad view is in keeping with his personality, said Fetzer, his old friend from college.

"It would be very out of character for him to line up what he's going to do," Fetzer said, "knowing that he's a freshman and that it would not be prudent to get out in front of the leadership."

Fetzer remembers that Burr made extra money in high school by fixing lawn mowers, taking them apart and putting them back together.

"He's methodical," Fetzer said. "He likes to know how things work."

(Staff writer Mandy Locke contributed to this report.)

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UNC, RTI team up to woo military

Nov. 8, 2004
News & Observer
By JAY PRICE
 © Copyright 2004

The University of North Carolina system and RTI International are pursuing a partnership with the Pentagon, defense contractors and others to create a potentially vast industry for the state: biotechnology-related military products.

Research Triangle Institute -- a nonprofit Research Triangle Park company with experience running big government contracts -- is scouting sites in the Triangle for what will be known as the North Carolina DoD Initiative, said Robert Helms, who leads RTI's role in the initiative.

The initiative's planned campus would be home to unusual research and development teams that would include members of the military, academia, major defen