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NC State University News Clips for November 20-22, 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

Face of N. C. agriculture in state of change
Johnny Wynne, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

NATIONAL & REGIONAL CLIPS

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Face of N. C. agriculture in state of change

Nov. 20, 2004
Roxboro Courier Times
By VICKI BERRY
 © Copyright 2004

Agriculture is still important to the state of North Carolina, but it is changing.

That was the essence of the message that Dr. Johnny Wynne, interim dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University, presented to the Roxboro Area Chamber of Commerce Coffee Hour this week.

Wynne was the guest speaker at the Golden Corral on Wednesday as part of the 16th Annual Farm City Week observance, which is jointly sponsored by the chamber and the Person County Cooperative Extension Service.

At the Coffee Hour, the winners of the fourth-grade 4-H Farm City Week Poster Contest were announced (see page A3). Also, on Thursday, Nov. 18, the Extension Service, in association with the N.C. Department of Agriculture, sponsored a pesticide disposal day. This afforded farmers, homeowners and businesses an opportunity to properly get rid of any pesticides that were no longer needed.

Wynne told Wednesday’s Coffee Hour audience that North Carolina is the third most diverse state in the country for agriculture in terms of climate and geography as well as commodities. However, farms in the state are on the decline, he said, having dropped from 302,000 in 1948 to 57,000 in 2000.

“It is more and more difficult to make a living on the farm,” he said, which is why value-added and alternative enterprises have become a major initiative for N.C. State.

He explained that with product agriculture, the focus is on consumer products and objectives, including assistance and development.

The Specialty Crops Program, he said, involves crops that are unusual yet offer high value and fit a niche.

“The objective is to develop new crops but at the same time develop markets, which is the key,” said Wynne.

Some of the crop successes in 2003, he said, included the sprite melon, yellow seedless watermelon and an expansion in lettuce.

Aquaculture is another alternative that is meeting with success. One tobacco greenhouse in the state is now accommodating and housing fish tanks as part of the farm’s aquaculture industry. Meat goat production is also a growing alternative due to the changing ethnic population, Wynne said.

“I think there is a very bright future for the goat,” he said.

Wynne pointed out that floriculture passed tobacco in value in 2002 and that organic market sales tripled between 1997 and 2003, especially in the area of meats and snacks.

“We are changing the way we are doing business,” said Wynne. “We now grow what we sell and not sell what we grow.”

“We are looking to create opportunities to be able to live on the land.”

Wynn has been on the N. C. State faculty since 1968. From 1992 until being named to his current post in 2003, he was associate dean and director of the N.C. Agricultural Research Service. He taught undergraduate and graduate plant breeding and conducted peanut breeding research until 1989 when he was appointed head of the Crop Science Department.

The National Farm City Council is a non-profit organization enhancing the linkages between farm families and urban residents, providing local organizations with education programs and materials about the people who grow their food, explained 4-H Cooperative Extension Agent Jennifer Brewer. Since 1955, the council, together with state and local councils and committees, has encouraged building understanding of interdependence between rural and urban residents.

With an ongoing theme of “Partners in Progress,” Farm City Week spotlights how American agriculture reaches beyond the farm or ranch. Agriculture, in fact, is an industry that includes a significant number of urban and suburban residents who help process, transport, sell and distribute the bounty, said Brewer.

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Chancellor's home soon could be replaced at N.C. State

Nov. 20, 2004
Associated Press; Charlotte Observer; News & Observer; WCNC; Wilmington Morning Star; Winston-Salem Journal; WTVD; WVEC, VA
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

Leaders at North Carolina State University want school planners to determine the feasibility of replacing the aging chancellor's residence.

The chancellor's house, built in 1928, sits on Hillsborough Street beneath towering trees near Pullen Park in Raleigh.

The cost to renovate the home is estimated at more than $2 million, while preliminary estimates to build a new home is roughly $3 million.

This fall, an architect's report said some rooms are clearly too small for public functions and others are inaccessible to people with physical handicaps. Plumbing and heating also should be replaced.

"Given the costs to renovate, it raises the question of whether the house can really accommodate the public needs of a chancellor's residence," said Peaches Blank, chairwoman of the N.C. State University board of trustees. "The answer is this: It does not."

Trustees told school officials Friday to begin exploring the costs and options of a new house. Still, the idea of moving the chancellor off the school's main campus is certain to stir strong feelings among supporters and alumni.

"It is more than just a house," said Marvin Malecha, dean of the university's College of Design. "It is truly a symbolic structure for the campus."

A proposed site is on the south side of Lake Raleigh, adjacent to the planned alumni center.

No one has lived at the chancellor's house since Chancellor Marye Anne Fox left earlier this year. James Oblinger, who will become the new chancellor Jan. 1, is expected to move in as soon as he takes office.

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Former Joint Chiefs chairman says U.S. needs more troops in Iraq

Nov. 19, 2004
Associated Press; Charlotte Observer; News & Observer; WCNC; Wilmington Morning Star; Winston-Salem Journal; Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX; Kansas.com, KS; Kentucky.com, KY; Pioneer Press , MN; San Jose Mercury News, CA; WVEC, VA
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

Retired Army Gen. Hugh Shelton, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called upon the Bush administration to "start over again" seeking international support for its mission in Iraq.

The war effort suffers from too few troops and too few allies, Shelton said Friday at his alma mater, North Carolina State University.

"It's being viewed and painted as a U.S. invasion and occupation for the purpose of oil," Shelton said. "That's fueling the radicals."

Shelton served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs from 1997 until his retirement in 2001.

Shelton said he did not have a specific number of troops in mind but that the 140,000 who are there are "strained."

Shelton had misgivings about troop levels early in the war and said he worried that Iraq would fall into chaos after Saddam Hussein was ousted. The U.S. should return to its NATO allies to ask for help as the battleground in Iraq is increasingly spread out.

Shelton also called for giving proper incentives to military troops — from adequate pay to adequate equipment — so that military service would seem attractive to young graduates.

Shelton served former Presidents Clinton and Bush. He now heads NCSU's Initiative for Leadership Development.

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Emphasis on Safety

Nov. 19, 2004
Greenville Daily Reflector
By Kelly Soderlund
© Copyright 2004

A conference today will introduce a hand-held safety device developed by ECU and highlight proposals to mass produce it for students.

The electronic panic button can be clipped on a key chain and send a signal to campus police in the event of an attack. The technology also would allow police to remotely determine the student's location within 12 feet, officials said.

East Carolina University researchers developed the device in response to ongoing concerns about campus safety throughout the UNC system.

The university will host a conference on the device today at the Murphy Center for more than 100 representatives from law enforcement and the 16 University of North Carolina campuses. Eight vendors, such as Nextel, Cingular Wireless and other security and communications companies, will present technology that can accommodate the device.

"There is technology that ranges up and down the scale in terms of efficiency and in terms of cost," said Garrie Moore, vice chancellor for student life. "What we have done is to invite the UNC community to attend this conference along with other law enforcement agencies to hear firsthand about this technology and to learn about the research that has already been conducted."

The device could be integrated with the university's blue light system, a network of 80 call boxes which allows people to contact authorities. The call boxes have flashing blue lights to alert police to the location of an emergency, said J. Barry Duvall, director for ECU's Center for Wireless and Mobile Computing, which helped develop the technology.

The conference grew out of discussions of the UNC Task Force on Campus Safety — a systemwide group formed after two people were killed on the UNC-Wilmington campus earlier this year. ECU has had to increase security in the last year after several rapes were reported on campus.

Although the device was developed in part by ECU researchers, it would be up to the vendors to manufacture it.

"That's part of having the vendors here ... to see if their technology would match up to what we have," Moore said. "I think the participants will be very pleased to see just how advanced this technology is and how effectively it can be used."

Though there has not been any decision on funding for the device, Moore said he will look toward grants and to companies that could provide the technology at a reduced cost.

The university would also be open to piloting a device for a company at no cost to ECU, Moore said.

The development of a personal safety device comes after a $400,000 camera system was installed at ECU earlier this year.

The cameras feed into the campus police department, where additional monitors have been installed.

ECU is the first university in the UNC system to install security cameras in all of its residence halls.

Officials said North Carolina State University is the only other school with security cameras, which are at its largest dormitory.

The cameras are the largest part of the university's housing services' safety awareness campaign.

Information also is aired on the campus living station, advisers have addressed safety issues at floor meetings, and students have received magnets with safety tips.

Random identification checks were conducted during the first two weeks of school to train students to always carry their ID cards when they enter the residence halls.

Housing officials also formed student security teams to patrol the perimeters of the dormitories between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m.

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NCSU may raise tuition next year

Nov. 19, 2004
News 14 Carolina
By Tim Boyum
© Copyright 2004

North Carolina universities are once again facing tough questions about raising tuition.

At least two schools are already recommending hikes for next year. Universities are trying to balance increasing costs and affordable education.

In a quiet board room Friday morning, N.C. State trustees made a lot of noise by recommending another tuition hike for next year. Only one person voted against it, the student government president, Tony Caravano.

“The students are just concerned, students like myself who do struggle to make sure ends meet,” he said.

The Board of Governors, which oversees all 16 state universities, has said it's not increasing tuition statewide.

But it did leave the opportunity open for tuition increases on individual campuses, like N.C. State. And it’s not alone.

N.C. State wants a $300 increase but Chapel Hill’s also recommending a $250 to $350 hike. Several other schools including UNC-Charlotte and Fayetteville State will take up the issue soon.

“Sure it's inevitable but what you want to do you try to make it in a way that it's still affordable. It's either affordable because they have scholarships or because they have work study opportunities,” Dr. Robert Barnhardt, NCSU interim chancellor, stated.

The state Constitution mandates that higher education remains as close to free as possible. Some believe that's fading away.

Caravano said, “I really think that's a discussion that the General Assembly and Board of Governor members need to have.”

Robert Shelton of UNC Chapel Hill explained, “The campus-based tuition increases have been absolutely essential in our ability to fund T.A. salaries and faculty salaries to retain the very best graduate students and faculty.”

It's an argument that will likely continue for years to come and both sides agree there's no easy solution.

The Board of Governors must approve all campus tuition increases. It will likely take up the issue in February or March.

Here's a look how UNC-Chapel Hill's tuition compares to other ACC schools:

* UNC-Chapel Hill - $4444
* Georgia Tech - $3368
* Virginia Tech - $4512
* Clemson - $8040

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Blue Crab research program accepting proposals for 2005

Nov. 22, 2004
Outer Banks Sentinel
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

The Blue Crab Research Program (BCRP) invites members of the crabbing community and those involved in crabbing related industries and research to submit proposals for funding in 2005.

The program, which is funded by the N.C. General Assembly and administered by North Carolina Sea Grant, seeks innovative research that will help enhance North Carolina's blue crab fishery. Priority funding areas include stock enhancement; population assessment; blue crab biology; shedding technology; and social and economic impacts of the blue crab fishery. Potential research topics include, but are not limited to: crab migration patterns at all life stages; usage and productivity of sanctuary waters; effects of crabbing in estuarine habitats and ecosystems; mortality in shedding operations; methods of reducing pot loss; and male and female reproductive viability. For a complete list of potential topics, visit North Carolina Sea Grant online at www.ncseagrant.org.

To help develop ideas into full-scale research proposals, applicants must participate in a presubmission conference that can be held by telephone, email, or through participation in a workshop or a one-on-one meeting with a Sea Grant representative. Where appropriate, Sea Grant may suggest grant recipients partner with academic researchers to ensure useful, well-documented results.

Workshops will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on the following dates and at the following locations:

Nov. 29 - Edenton, National Fish Hatchery, 1104 West Queen Street.

Nov. 30 - Manteo, North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island, Teaching Lab Room.

Dec. 7 - Morehead City, Center for Marine Sciences and Technology (CMAST), 303 College Circle, Room 205 (on the Carteret Community College Campus).


Dec. 8 - Wilmington - UNC-Wilmington Center for Marine Science, 5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane (off Masonboro Loop Road), first floor conference room.

Contact Marc Turano, blue crab specialist for North Carolina Sea Grant at 910-520-7060 or marc_turano@ncsu.edu. To learn more about the BCRP and funding process, visit North Carolina Sea Grant online at www.ncseagrant.org and click on research areas.

Deliver signed applications to North Carolina Sea Grant, N.C. State University, Box 8605, room 100C, 1911 Building, Raleigh, N.C. 27695-8605. Applications must be postmarked by Jan. 17, 2005. Hand-delivered applications must be received by 5 p.m. the same date. Faxed proposals will not be considered.

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Retired general speaks out

Nov. 20, 2004
News & Observer
By JOSH SHAFFER
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH -- Retired Army Gen. Hugh Shelton said Friday that the war effort in Iraq is suffering from too few troops and too few allies. He called on the Bush administration to "start over again" in seeking international help.

In a news conference at N.C. State University's McKimmon Conference and Training Center, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff praised U.S. troops but lamented that their mission in Iraq is misunderstood abroad.

"It's being viewed and painted as a U.S. invasion and occupation for the purpose of oil," said Shelton, an Edgecombe County native. "That's fueling the radicals."

Shelton, who graduated from NCSU in 1963, became the first member of the Green Berets to rise to the nation's top military post. He served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs from 1997 until his retirement in 2001.

He spoke Friday at the third annual General Henry Hugh Shelton Leadership Forum, which is designed to promote integrity and ethics among top government and business officials.

During a break between forum sessions, Shelton's talk turned to Iraq. He said he did not have a specific number of troops in mind but that the 140,000 who are there are "strained." Shelton had misgivings about troop levels early in the war and said he worried that Iraq would fall into chaos after Saddam Hussein was ousted.

To reduce the burden of fighting a war that is increasingly spread out, Shelton said Friday that the United States should return to its NATO allies with a fresh plea. "When we asked the first time, it was a fait accompli," he said.

Shelton also called for giving proper incentives to military troops from adequate pay to adequate equipment so that military service would seem attractive to young graduates.

Shelton, who served former President Clinton and President Bush, won praise as chairman of the Joint Chiefs for his candor.

One of his proudest moments, he said, came when he asked for $155 billion to increase troop readiness. It was against the advice of some with the Joint Chiefs, who said he would never get it and would appear a failure.

Shelton pushed for the money, he said, and got $112 billion.

"Let [my record] be based on I tried to do what was right," he told the crowd.

Shelton now heads NCSU's Initiative for Leadership Development, and he hopes to show students the traits that make for successful leaders.

During the forum, Shelton told the audience of about 600 that disappearing values had created the climate that resulted in the scandals at companies such as Enron and WorldCom.

"This type of unethical, inappropriate and, in some cases, downright immoral behavior has cast a shadow over the corporate world," he said.

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NCSU: Rebuild or rehab?

Nov. 20, 2004
News & Observer
By TIM SIMMONS
 © Copyright 2004

For more than 75 years, the stately brick house at 1903 Hillsborough St. has been home for the chancellor of N.C. State University.

But its days of playing host to the university's first family could soon be over.

The wide open spaces of Centennial Campus and the excitement of a new home design have university leaders talking about a new chancellor's residence.

Trustees told university planners Friday to begin exploring the costs and options of a new house. Preliminary estimates peg the construction cost at roughly $3 million. All of the money would be raised privately.

The push to build a new home started quietly when former Chancellor Marye Anne Fox announced last spring she was leaving.

Tucked beneath towering trees near the northern edge of Pullen Park, the chancellor's house was built in 1928. Its only significant renovation in the past 40 years was an overhaul of the master bedroom five years ago.

This fall, an architect's report said some rooms are clearly too small for public functions and others are inaccessible to people with physical handicaps. Plumbing and heating also should be replaced.

The cost to renovate the home is estimated at more than $2 million.

"Given the costs to renovate, it raises the question of whether the house can really accommodate the public needs of a chancellor's residence," said Peaches Blank, chairman of the NCSU board of trustees. "The answer is this: It does not."

Still, the idea of moving the chancellor off the school's main campus is certain to stir strong feelings among supporters and alumni.

"It is more than just a house," said Marvin Malecha, dean of the university's College of Design. "It is truly a symbolic structure for the campus."

With that thought in mind, trustees are expected to move forward with some caution.

The proposed site is on the south side of Lake Raleigh, adjacent to the planned alumni center.

It seems a natural fit for trustees and administrators who see Centennial Campus, where university researchers work with corporations to develop technology, as the cornerstone of the university's future.

But for many alumni and students, NCSU is still the Bell Tower and the Brickyard. Both are within walking distance of the chancellor's house.

Convincing traditionalists that the home's location should be moved will be an important part of any fund-raising drive.

Even if money were not an issue -- and it is -- it would take at least two years before a new residence could be ready, said Charles Leffler, vice chancellor for finance and business.

"It's a bit of a moving target right now, so the timetable is hard to predict," Leffler said.

The quasi-public role of the house, however, is not in doubt.

"In effect, you are talking about building a place that becomes the university's living room," Leffler said.

No one has lived at the chancellor's house since Fox left. James Oblinger, who will become NCSU's chancellor Jan. 1, is expected to move in as soon as he takes office.

Once a new chancellor's house is built, uses for the current residence are expected to trigger lengthy debates. Early favorites are to use the house as a gathering place for deans and faculty members or as a location to greet and entertain smaller groups.

Regardless of its use, the house will require some upkeep. Architects estimate it will cost about $300,000 just to catch up with repairs that have been delayed.

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Two more N.C. State fraternities in hazing probe

Nov. 19, 2004
News 14 Carolina
By Tracey Early
© Copyright 2004

Three N.C. State fraternities in the midst of a hazing investigation are now suspended.

Delta Sigma Phi's activities are on hold for the rest of the year. The other two groups were suspended temporarily.

It's the buzz around the Greek circle but many NCSU students are keeping their lips sealed about the hazing allegations on campus.

Others are defending Greek life.

Matt Holt of Pi Kappa Phi said, “It doesn't go on in my fraternity, I can't comment on other fraternities because I’m not a part of it, but for the most part, I’m pretty confident that hazing doesn't go on at N.C. State.”

But a recent investigation into hazing at Delta Sigma Phi found otherwise. And two other fraternities are being questioned for violating school policies as well.

Sigma Phi Epsilon’s president, Wilson Harris, believes the university will rule in their favor. “We believe we're innocent, we're a good group of guys and we believe that's the verdict that's going to come out in this whole process.”

Activities at Harris’ fraternity and Sigma Alpha Epsilon are temporarily on hold during the investigation.

Delta Sigma Phi, however, is suspended for the rest of the school year.

School officials said Delta Sigma Phi was suspended for having a late-night scavenger hunt. It happened earlier this semester and now other fraternities here at N.C. State said they're suffering as well.

"It's kind of like one group messes up so they like want to watch everyone else to make sure it doesn't happen again even though somebody may never do it and they still have to suffer from it," Tyler Reninger of Sigma Chi explained

N.C. State spokesman Keith Nichols said there is a zero tolerance for hazing on campus. "We did not find that anyone was physically injured, but it was a case of sending pledges out on campus in the late night, early morning hours, which under the definition of hazing at N.C. State, is a violation."

Delta Sigma Phi is conducting its own investigation into the hazing allegations. Until that is complete, the group will not comment on the university's findings.

Nichols added, “Is it negative that it happened? Yes, but I think it speaks more to the idea of community and awareness about the negative aspects of hazing."

N.C. State officials hope to finish its hazing investigations for Sigma Phi Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Epsilon by the end of the semester.

Until then, they can not participate in any Greek events as a chapter.

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Autopsy released for men shot at NCSU game

Nov. 19, 2004
News 14 Carolina
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

The autopsy reports have been released for two men killed while tailgating at an N.C. State football game in Raleigh.

Medical examiners say Kevin McCann, 23, suffered a gunshot wound to the left temple. The bullet broke several bones in his head and became lodged in the right side of his skull. The toxicology report shows McCann had a blood alcohol level of 0.14.

The autopsy report for Brett Harman, 23, shows cuts and scrapes all over his face and body. He was shot at close range and died. His blood alcohol level was 0.17.

Officials charged two brothers, Timothy and Tony Johnson, with the September 4th murders.

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ASG, UNC face a schism

Nov. 22, 2004
The Daily Tar Heel
By EMMA BURGIN
 © Copyright 2004

RALEIGH - Many of the UNC system's campus leaders met Saturday to approve a couple of new officers and discuss the system's tuition situation.

But one student body president's absence was glaring - that of UNC-Chapel Hill Student Body President Matt Calabria.

He had car trouble that morning that prevented him from making the drive to Raleigh, and he did send a delegate to the association's General Assembly meeting.

But some members of the Association of Student Governments - particularly those on the Council of Student Body Presidents - feel UNC-CH's involvement in the group has dropped off considerably.

"Part of the problem is that, for the past couple of years, they haven't been as involved," said Amanda Devore, ASG president. "Their delegates don't have the same history with the ASG."

Writing it out

The ASG is a multicampus organization established in 1972 to provide support for the UNC system's goal of extending opportunities to the people of North Carolina.

Earlier this semester, Calabria wrote Devore a letter outlining improvements he thought would benefit both the association's mission and the group itself, which meets monthly and answers to the system's Board of Governors.

"I think the ASG is an organization that fills an important role, so what we're trying to do is help it more effectively fit that role," Calabria said. "There's a lot of things that could make the ASG operate a lot better.

"In some places, it would be better for UNC-Chapel Hill to do its own thing."

One of these places is tuition, where Calabria said the ASG needs to be more flexible.

"(The association) has a knee-jerk, anti-tuition stance no matter what," he said. "But UNC-Chapel Hill has varying interests concerning campus-based tuition versus systemwide increases."

Other suggestions in Calabria's letter include term limits on specific universities' holding the ASG presidency, bimonthly meetings and a more focused budget.

"I would consider them minor suggestions," Devore said. "I wouldn't consider them all that major."

She wrote Calabria a letter in response, offering "some clarification and ... systemwide perspective" to the recommendations.

Devore said she hopes to meet with Calabria soon to work on possible amendments and resolutions addressing his suggestions.

A different view

Calabria said he views the ASG as a confederation of student governments participating on a volunteer basis.

"So the perspective we're looking at is it's a weak confederation," Calabria said. "We're trying to get what's positive out of it. It doesn't govern student governments. It aids what we do."

But Jeff Nieman, former ASG president and UNC-CH graduate, said the University is tied to the association because it's a part of the system.

"There needs to be no institutional changes to mend what tension exists," Nieman said. "You've just got to participate. ... This isn't something to fight against. It's something you're a part of whether you like it or not."

In the past

Nieman said the tension between the University and the ASG is relatively new.

Up through his tenure as association president, UNC-CH maintained a close relationship - always holding at least one administrative position.

"The student body president in Chapel Hill historically has seen there's this umbrella, statewide organization and ... has worked to embolden their position within it as opposed to compete with it."

Not until Nieman's term ended and N.C. State University student Andrew Payne took over in 2000 did things start to get sticky.

And the problems continued right into former ASG President Jonathan Ducote's term.

"What's happening now is starting to sound similar to what (former UNC-CH SBP Matt) Tepper and I experienced last year," Ducote said. "He had complaints, but at the end of the day, it was me showing up at the table trying to solve the problems."

Ducote, also an N.C. State student and now serving as the ASG director of federal relations, said the problem lies in UNC-CH's lack of participation in the association.

"You can say you want all these changes, but unless you're willing to show up and make the changes, then it's all talk."

At an impasse

Calabria would not comment on whether his administration would try to halt participation in or support for the ASG.

While he could halt participation in meetings rather easily, it would be more arduous to cut monetary ties to the association.

The ASG receives $1 in student fees from every full-time student in the UNC system, allotting it a budget of $170,000.

Calabria would have to draw up a referendum that would request UNC-CH pull the more than $26,000 it contributes to the ASG.

The referendum would have to be approved by the UNC-CH Board of Trustees and the BOG.

But Devore said the absence of UNC-CH would only serve as a detriment to both the University and the association.

"Sixteen campuses, one goal. Not 16 campuses, 16 goals," she said. "I would see only negatives for our organization and theirs by them trying to get rid of the fee or pulling out of ASG."

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.

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Volunteers from area universities help high school students seeking admission

Nov. 21, 2004
Durham Herald-Sun
By Mindy B. Hagen
 © Copyright 2004

DURHAM -- Ashley Brown opened a life-changing piece of mail last week.

When the 17-year-old Southern High School senior arrived home, her sister handed her an envelope from East Carolina University.

"All I read was 'congratulations,' and then I dropped the letter and started crying," Brown said about her college acceptance letter. "The hardest part of the process was waiting. And now I'm going to be the first person out of my family to go college."

Proudly sporting a purple East Carolina sweater, Brown said she might not have achieved her dream without help from the College Connection. The program, started by two Duke University sophomores last year, has paired 10 Southern students like Brown with student and adult volunteers from area universities.

The 10 participants were selected by Southern's guidance counselors as students with college potential. The number of students could be expanded if more volunteers signed up to help.

The volunteers work with the students every other Monday night in Southern's media center, helping them identify potential colleges, brainstorm ideas for essays, fill out the required paperwork and look for possible scholarships. The group has been meeting since early fall, with the last meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. on Nov. 29.

Without her volunteer, Bobbie Collins-Perry of Duke's Talent Identification Program, Brown said she wouldn't have known she could seek an application-fee waiver. After she filled out the forms, Brown received the waiver -- meaning she was able to apply to East Carolina and up to three other schools without paying the application fee. East Carolina's application fee, for example, costs $50.

"We have almost no money," said Brown, who plans to study nursing. "Without the waiver, I definitely would have been limited in the number of schools I could apply to. With her help, I didn't have to even pay for the application."

When she hears success stories like that, Duke student Marcia Eisenstein says she knows her idea is working. Eisenstein and fellow Duke junior Emily Epstein developed the program as part of a Hart Leadership Program course at Duke last year.

Eisenstein said the College Connection idea came to her as she remembered the stress of her college application process. She thought trained professionals could help guide Durham high school seniors through the complicated paperwork and financial aid forms.

"We want to help kids for whom college may not necessarily be on the front burner," said Eisenstein, originally from Kentucky. "If it wasn't for my parents, I don't think I would have met my own college deadlines."

After proposing the idea, Eisenstein met with administrators at several Durham high schools before deciding to start the program at Southern. Southern guidance counselor David Minion said the idea allowed potentially college-bound seniors to receive one-on-one attention -- and helped their college acceptance chances.

With each guidance counselor at Southern in charge of 420 students, the counselors often don't have enough time to personally walk each student through his or her college applications, he said.

"It's a resource we are not really equipped to offer, but it opens the students up to options they might not normally consider," Minion said. "The students are talking with someone who has experience, who's been down the college applications road themselves or who knows a lot about the admissions process. I have no doubt it's helping them stand a better chance of getting into college."

Although the next meeting will be the last one for this group of students, Eisenstein said she hoped to restart the program this spring at Southern, with a new group of junior students who need help preparing for the SAT and other college entrance tests. After summer break, she said she would want the same students, now seniors, to return to the program for college application help.

At the most recent session, students and volunteers discussed ideas for essays and logged onto to computers to search for scholarships.

Volunteering at the session, Barbara Potter, a Duke admissions officer who estimates she's read between 15,000 and 20,000 college essays, advised the student she was helping Monday night to show off her passions and experiences in her essays for N.C. State and UNC.

"You want to show the person on the other end who you are," Potter said. "You want to write about something you care about. That's what makes a powerful essay."

Potter also told her student some other tips: Essays should be double-spaced and typed in an average-sized font to help the weary eyes of the admissions officer reading it.

At a nearby table, Southern senior Nysheria Sims worked with her volunteer to expand her list of college options. Sims, 17, already has applied to UNC and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Fla.

"Both of those schools are very competitive," she said. "It's nice just to sit down and talk about college, what I should expect and what I'm looking for."

On Monday Sims decided she also might want to look into Bowie State, Winston-Salem State and Howard University. She knows she wants each school on her list to have strong business and psychology programs and to offer a broad range of extracurricular activities.

"Neither my mom or dad went to college, but they always stressed that I should strive to work hard on my grades and go further in school than they did," Sims said. "Now, all I can do is wait. I just hope it's good news when I finally do hear."

HOW TO HELP

If you are knowledgeable about the college admissions process or testing preparation and want to volunteer to work with Southern High School students as part of the College Connection program, call Duke's Hart Leadership Program at 613-7305.

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Hard-working, local produce wholesalers don't find easy pickings in their business

Nov. 21, 2004
Winston-Salem Journal
By Jeanne Sturiale
 © Copyright 2004

Will Doss, 33, is glad he's not back in the old days, "sleeping with the produce." Doss, a fourth-generation manager at W.R. Vernon Produce Co. in Winston-Salem, used that expression recently to describe the punishing hours put in by family members of past generations that distributed fresh fruits and vegetables.

"They'd work all day and into the night, get a couple of hours of sleep, and open back up," Doss said.

Today, schedules aren't quite as harsh. But, the small hours of the morning are still when Winston-Salem's wholesale-produce machine comes alive, in and around the warehouses of a handful of ages-old businesses.

Most of those companies are huddled around North Cherry and Trade streets, at Seventh Street. It's an area that, in the 1940s, became a bustling center of produce commerce, fed by the city's industrial growth.

From Vernon Produce, the "granddaddy," to the smallest, Triad Produce Inc., the companies form an unusual network of competitors and colleagues, one where family roots run deep.

Their common cause is moving a designated tonnage of fresh produce - whether it's cantaloupes from Yadkinville or purple peppers from Belgium - from field to packing house, distribution center to retailer.

The produce wholesalers are categorized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as "specialty" wholesalers in the nation's $589-billion business of food wholesaling. "Full-line" wholesalers, such as E.G. Forrest Co. in Winston-Salem, deal in a broader range of food-related products.

The customers of the city's specialty wholesalers are varied: Farm stands, other wholesalers, retail grocery chains, restaurants, schools. Most of the produce wholesalers work with food brokers to negotiate prices with others in the distribution chain.

They are survivors, despite a round of changes that started decades ago.

Arlis Vernon, whose father founded Vernon Produce, has lived through plenty of those changes. A notable one was in the mid-1960s, when many of Winston-Salem's wholesale-produce companies went out of business.

"The second generation didn't work out, because it's labor intensive. It's a demanding business," he said.

More recently, a flurry of consolidation has changed the flow of food-production markets.

"The moms and pops are disappearing," said Ed Estes, a professor of agricultural economics at N.C. State University.

"Every aspect of the food chain is consolidating. In terms of wholesalers of fruits and vegetables, there are just not that many. My guess is there are probably fewer than a hundred in North Carolina."

Mark Denbaly, the chief of food markets for the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said: "Retailers tend to bypass wholesalers and go directly to growers/shippers. It is a conglomeration of forces, combining what consumers want and how suppliers reorganize to most efficiently provide what the consumers want."

Pete Vernon, Arlis Vernon's son, said that until 10 or 12 years ago, his business was dependent "on a lot of independent grocers - Food Fair, little open-air marketplaces."

That business all but disappeared.

In 1996 Food Lion, now part of Delhaize Group, bought the Food Fair chain, which had operated several stores in North Carolina. Around that time, consolidation wiped out such local independents as Mount Tabor Food Market and Grandview Food Market.

Today, large grocery chains have their own distribution centers. Jeff Lowrance, a spokesman at Food Lion in Salisbury, said that the company brings product in directly from farms to several distribution centers in its market.

Such changes led Vernon Produce and others to new marketing avenues.

Pete Vernon said, "With the growth of Wal-Marts, expansion of grocery chains like Harris Teeter, we had to be more restaurant, food-service oriented, and reach out to smaller chains if we could."

Consolidation on the restaurant side has also occurred. But that segment is very fragmented and offers more opportunities to specialty wholesalers, said Phil Kaufman, an agricultural economist with the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

B.J. Smith, who owns Triad Produce Inc., said that big distributors such as Sysco Corp. in Houston, Texas, and U.S. Foodservice in Columbia, Md., have lured customers away with contracts, offering not only produce but also dried goods, meat and other products.

Smith said he has made up for some of the lost business by serving a growing niche of Hispanic restaurants.

Kathy Means, a spokeswoman for the Produce Marketing Association in Newark, Del., said that finding new markets is often easier for wholesalers, who are more nimble than other industry segments.

Vernon Produce now focuses on restaurants and other food-service businesses, primarily through R&C Produce Co., for which it is a major supplier.

In 1993, Vernon Produce also gained an upscale customer, The Fresh Market of Greensboro, and its 20 stores in the Southeast. That business accounts for more than a third of the company's sales, Doss said.

W.G. White & Co. took a different route to find its niche. Since 1924, it had evolved from a retail general store to a wholesaler of candies, country hams and dried beans.

Charlie Lawrence, an owner and the grandson of the company's founder, said that until 1994, the business ran a produce store at what is now Ronnie's Grocery Store at Seventh and Cherry streets.

In 1996, Lawrence and Doug White sold the business to Ronnie Horton of Ronnie's Grocery Store and entered the wholesale arena.

"We've gone from the mixed retail and wholesale environment to strictly wholesale," Lawrence said. "We've had a tremendous amount of growth. I think part of the growth is that we have expertise in retail and display for retail sales."

W.G. White has also benefited from the Hispanic-population boom, and now deals with about 50 local Hispanic grocers, Lawrence said.

Pete Vernon said that W.G. White has taken a share of Vernon Produce's business, but that the two companies generally differ in markets and operations.

Besides looking for new markets, produce wholesalers have had other challenges.

Recently, tomato prices have skyrocketed. That's because of tight supplies caused by hurricane damage in Florida, severe rainstorms in California, and weather and pest problems in Mexico, said Gary Lucier of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Eddie Branscomb of Branscomb Produce Co., whose specialty is tomatoes, said last week that tomato prices "more than doubled. The market is now at $40 a box. The average market, before the hurricane season set in, is probably $8."

Branscomb, the grandson of the company's founder and Pete Vernon's cousin, sells to such customers as U.S. Foodservice and Foster-Caviness Foodservice in Greensboro, a wholesaler with over $24 million in annual sales.

Dennis McCulloh of Winston Tomato Inc. also complained about high prices and the quality of the tomato crop. Recently, McCulloh said that his profit on a 25-lb. box of tomatoes fell from a couple of dollars to 40 cents.

Andy Cortessis of R&C Produce said, "We're having a hard time getting them. So far, we're covering our customer. One broker said one of his big competitors is out of stock."

High fuel costs and driver shortages also plague the entire food-production industry

Legislation passed in Congress, known as "COOL" or the Country of Origin Labeling Act, would have required mandatory labeling of fruits and vegetables at all points in the distribution chain starting this fall, but implementation was postponed to 2006 and now there is a move to repeal it.

"It'll just be an added cost to everybody in the chain, and it'll be passed on to the consumer," Pete Vernon said. Vernon Produce imports about 25 percent of its produce, he said.

Food-safety issues are growing in importance, some of the produce wholesalers said, partly because of terrorism and border security.

More demanding consumers, with higher expectations of quality and need for variety, have intensified competition and placed demands on food production.

Also, with consolidation, competition is intense.

Doss, Vernon Produce's specialty buyer, said: "In the past, the businesses kind of walked in the door. Now, we have to work a little harder to get it. We have more competition for the staple products like bananas, than for upper-tier stuff specialty items like organics or premium lettuce."

Vernon Produce has a comfortable lead among the other companies, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't compete with them - or deal with them.

"We trade back and forth," McCulloh of Winston Tomato said. "Vernon buys stuff off of me, and I buy stuff off of them. We work together."

Pete Vernon said: "We have all known each other forever. We don't mind helping each other."

Despite the challenges, most of the local company owners said that they make a profit.

Mike Baskett of L&M Companies Inc., a produce marketer and grower company based in Raleigh, said: "There's still a good place for them. They need to continue to find their niches within the distribution network of larger chains and food-service companies."

Their biggest competitive edge may lie in their service and agility.

"They can turn on a dime," Baskett said. "Their quality and service is generally greater than some of the bigger companies that offer more products."

If that's not enough, heritage can be a powerful motivator.

"It's just in our blood," said McCulloh, whose great-grandfather worked in produce.

• Jeanne Sturiale can be reached at 727-7356 or at jsturiale@wsjournal.com.

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Man sued in crash deaths of 2 teens

Nov. 21, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By GARY L. WRIGHT
 © Copyright 2004

David Scott Shimp, charged with driving while impaired and two counts of murder after his SUV slammed into a car full of teenagers in Huntersville in April, has been sued by the parents of the victims.

The parents also have sued The Graduate Food and Pub in Cornelius, where they say Shimp drank excessively in the hours before the fatal crash.

Shimp is accused of murdering 19-year-old cousins Sally McKenzie Clark and Anna Grace Jordan in the early morning crash near Birkdale Village.

Shimp, 22, remains jailed on $600,000 bond while awaiting trial.

His defense lawyer in the criminal case, George Laughrun, would not talk about the allegations in the wrongful-death lawsuit.

Byron Holden, who represents Shimp in the civil lawsuit, declined comment. Officials of The Graduate could not be reached for comment.

Tim Barber, who represents the victims' parents, said his clients hope the lawsuit will prevent similar tragedies.

"These families are absolutely devastated by their loss," Barber said. "They want to prevent this from happening to other families."

The suit, filed in Mecklenburg Superior Court, seeks more than $10,000 in damages for the deaths, including pain and suffering, reasonable medical and funeral expenses and the families' loss of affection and companionship.

The lawsuit also seeks more than $10,000 in punitive damages for what it describes as the "willful, wanton, reckless and grossly negligent acts leading to the deaths of Sally Clark and Grace Jordan."

The lawsuit was filed by David Clark Jr., Sally's father, and Sally Anne Jordan, Grace's mother.

The lawsuit accuses Shimp of smoking marijuana and drinking excessively in the hours before the two teenagers were killed.

Shimp, of Huntersville, had planned an evening of celebration after graduating from the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville, the lawsuit says.

He was going to meet friends at The Graduate. But before going there, he met several friends at a nearby apartment, where he smoked marijuana, the lawsuit alleges.

Shimp arrived alone at The Graduate around 11:30 p.m. In less than two hours, he had six pints of Newcastle beer and three liquor drinks, according to the lawsuit.

Two of the liquor drinks are described in the court documents as a Jagerbeer Bomb (a shot of Jagermeister dropped into a pint of beer) and a Three Wise Men (a shot of Jack Daniels, a shot of Jim Beam and a shot of Jose Cuervo).

After finishing drinking he got into his Chevrolet Blazer and headed toward his home, the lawsuit alleges.

Sally and Grace, meanwhile, had spent the evening at their brothers' condominium near UNC Charlotte watching the NCAA basketball tournament. An 18-year-old friend, Suzanne Paige Kessler, joined them later in the evening.

Sally and Grace left their brothers' condo with Suzanne around 12:45 a.m. At about 1:10 a.m., Sally called her father to let him know that she was on her way home and that she was bringing Suzanne with her to spend the night.

About 30 minutes later, Suzanne was making a left turn onto Birkdale Commons Parkway when Shimp's 1997 Chevrolet Blazer slammed into the passenger side of the 1999 Honda Accord.

Sally, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, and Grace, seated in the back, died at the scene.

Suzanne was hospitalized and later released.

Grace, a 2002 East Lincoln High graduate, was from Denver, N.C., and a freshman at N.C. State University. Sally, a 2003 Charlotte Country Day graduate, was from Iron Station and a freshman at Peace College in Raleigh.

Shimp was traveling 93 mph in the 45 mph speed zone and his blood-alcohol content was above the legal limit of 0.08, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit accuses employees of The Graduate of being grossly negligent.

The court documents allege that employees of The Graduate continued to serve Shimp when they knew or should have known that he was intoxicated.

The lawsuit accuses Shimp of being careless, reckless and negligent.

"Shimp's conduct was willful and wanton because he drank excessively in a short time period knowing he would operate his vehicle upon the public highways and then operated his vehicle in a reckless manner," the lawsuit says.

"Shimp exhibited a conscious disregard and indifference to the rights and safety of others."

Gary L. Wright: (704) 358-5052; gwright@charlotteobserver.com.

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Biography portrays a life rooted in the earth's good things

Nov. 21, 2004
Winston-Salem Journal
By Barbara Bamberger Scott
 © Copyright 2004

No one gardens alone, and this is a book about a gardener, Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-1985), who connected with others through her love of gardening. It would be fair to say that she connected deeply with her biographer, Winston-Salem author Emily Herring Wilson, who has extended that bond to include all of us - gardeners, Southerners, women - who respect Lawrence's unique vision and will cherish this portrait.

The child of respectable Episcopalian parents, Elizabeth graduated without great distinction from Barnard College, experiencing a flavor of Greenwich Village life that stamped her as a nonconformist without turning her from her life's course. It was her destiny to be a gardener, and her mother's graduation gift, a pair of pruning shears, sealed the bargain.

Elizabeth went on to study landscape architecture at State College (now N.C. State University) being the first woman to graduate from that institution, and in the last years of her life, helped design the gardens of Hope Plantation in Windsor.

In between she became an author and an authority on gardening in the Southern climate. At first, not being among the country's gardening elite, she had to struggle to get published, but she soon found acceptance and gained an avid following across America.

She was supported by the backing of such friends as Southern writer Eudora Welty, New York editor Katharine White, and playwright and mentor Ann Bridgers. Her correspondence with White over the course of many years was edited by Wilson in the collection Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters.

Much of Elizabeth's life was taken up in her companionship and later caregiving for her strong-minded mother, Bessie. It was said that Bessie "had an opinion on every subject," and catering to her can't always have been easy. Elizabeth's younger sister Ann (Way) managed to escape much of the direct responsibility and married, achieving more overt freedom than her responsible sibling. But when Ann and her family moved to Charlotte, Elizabeth and Bessie soon followed and moved in next door so that both women could watch over the formidable "little Prussian."

If this rankled at all in Elizabeth's spirit, she refrained from expressing her personal discomforts to the world, concentrating her energy on her garden. It had to be a scene of beauty in all seasons. "We can have flowers nearly every month of the year," she wrote. The garden shed would be the setting for her writing, the pathways would bloom year round, and creative, determined women like Elizabeth herself would find fulfillment in nurturing and propagating.

Her approach to the home garden as an aesthetic total environment and her intensive study of exotic flowers and bulbs appropriate to the Southern climate garnered a fan base that made her proud and that continually inspired her to churn out articles and attract even more interest. Her columns in the Charlotte Observer gave her great satisfaction.

Elizabeth believed that "the life of the child is relived in the man as inevitably as the history of the race is repeated in each generation." Her own childhood - secure, orderly, and surrounded by gardens - set the pattern. As an adult she invited the world to enter her flower-lined gate - "not only into my world, but into the world of gardens." Wilson's book is the key to that gate.

Scott is a free-lance writer and reviewer who lives in Dobson.

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Friends jostle for university scholarships

Nov. 20, 2004
Rocky Mount Telegram
By Natalie Jordan
 © Copyright 2004

Four Rocky Mount Academy seniors are among a slew of nominees for two notable college scholarships.

Rocky Mount Academy seniors Keith Ballentine and Kyle Minges, both 17, are vying for the John Motley Morehead Scholarship, while Mike Alston, 18, and Alex Warren, 17, are going head-to-head for the Park Scholarship.

The Park and Morehead scholarships are among the largest and most competitive scholarship programs in the United States. Tuition, books, room and board, a laptop computer and a stipend come with the honor of being a scholar.

The Morehead scholarship, given through the John Motley Morehead Foundation, is a four-year, undergraduate scholarship to University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. A Morehead scholar will receive $80,000 over the four-year stretch.

"I'm thrilled and honored by the nomination, and I owe a lot of it to some great teachers at the school," said Minges.

Kyle Minges is the son of Clyde and Cantrell Minges, both UNC-Chapel Hill alumni.

"We are so proud of him," said Cantrell Minges. "We love UNC-Chapel Hill, and this is a honor of a lifetime for him, and we wish all the nominees good luck. It's a tough process."

The Park Scholarship is a merit scholarship renewable for four years. Laura Gail Lunsford, director of the Park Scholarships, said the organization plans to give out $4 million in awards to 46 scholars, with 34 going to North Carolina residents.

"This scholarship is for students who are not only smart, but are leaders and want to make a difference in the world," she said. "It's a very prestigious honor to be nominated from their high school."

Lunsford said Park scholars will receive $6,500 each semester, totaling $13,000 for the year, and $52,000 for the four-year spread. She said scholars have to keep a certain grade point average and meet the expectations of scholarship faculty, which is "nothing these kids couldn't do already."

A requirement of the scholarship is that it is only applicable for prospective N.C. State University students.

That wasn't a problem for Alston or Warren.

"State runs in the family, and this would keep that tradition and help me along the way," Alston said.

Alston, son of Rick and Jan Alston, said he has already been accepted to N.C. State University, where he plans to major in engineering.

"This is a tremendous honor," he said. "(It's) something I've been shooting for since seventh grade. My brother was a finalist for this scholarship, and I watched him go through this process, and I knew that's what I wanted.

"My family was thrilled and proud because they knew this was something I was shooting for. My parents said they would help with any thing I needed during the process, and they would be happy if I won because it would help out with finances quite a bit."

Like Alston, Warren has been accepted to N.C. State University and has been a longtime fan of N.C. State, as well.

"It was pretty much inevitable, me going to State," Warren said. "Both my parents are alumni and have been supportive of my nomination."

The four students have been friends since childhood, participating in similar sports and honor societies. Now, some of them are forced to compete against each other for a prestigious scholarship.

"Ideally I wish both of us could win it," Alston said in reference to Warren. "We have been like close friends for a long time, and as much as I don't like to compete with him, I have to."

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A raw and lonely vision

Nov. 21, 2004
News and Observer
By MARTHA QUILLIN
 © Copyright 2004

At dusk on a Friday in early autumn, three dozen people are milling around the carpeted rectangle of Gallery C in a shopping center off Raleigh's Wade Avenue, at an opening of an exhibition of two dozen new paintings by Matt Cooper.


Men in suits and women in party dresses sipping white wine or ginger ale approach a painting, step back, move on to the next one. As they work the room, they catch up with neighbors they haven't seen in weeks, talking in worried tones about their children's school assignments, the new boss at work, when they'll ever find time to take the SUV in for service.

They look happy but distracted, exquisite but exasperated.

Do they realize Matt Cooper's paintings are of them?

Cooper, 44, has spent more than 20 years trying to portray the degrees of pain that afflict them, the affluent who could afford to -- but probably won't -- buy one of his paintings; the hourly worker, whose wages are spent on more mundane things; and the disenfranchised, for whom an evening of gazing at art is a luxury uncontemplated.

His paintings have been featured in nine solo exhibits at Gallery C, but also at the Horace Williams House in Chapel Hill, the Durham Art Guild, St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville, Va., and N.C. Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount. Cooper attends openings of the show, grudgingly.

"Fighting the good fight," he says of his decision to withdraw, hermitlike, from the world of his subjects and view it almost exclusively from a painter's perspective, in the hope of shining a healing light on what ails it. "I'm just trying to stop the war."

That's a metaphysical war, not the one in Iraq, although he has strong opinions about that as well. They are telegraphed through his paintings, especially the ones in this last show, which wrapped up a few weeks before the presidential election.

Some people betray everything they feel in their faces. Cooper empties his emotions out through tubes of oil paint. This is not a way to make a living; he is almost contemptuous of efforts to sell his work at any price. Painting, for Cooper, is life.

He considered a more normal one. An Army brat born at Fort Belvoir, Va., Cooper moved around with his family, living also at Fort Myer, Va., and in France and Germany. In the late 1970s, his father, Matthew Sr., retired from the military and the family settled in Littleton, about 65 miles northeast of Raleigh. It put Matt's mother, Delores, close to her Halifax County roots. Cooper spent his last year of high school there.

He went to the University of North Carolina, first as an art history major, then switched to journalism. He spent countless hours in the basement darkroom of the old journalism school, processing the images he had captured through the lens of a 35mm camera.

After graduation in 1982, he did a little stringer work, shooting occasional photos for the Associated Press and The News & Observer before taking a job at a small, black weekly in New Jersey.

As a photographer, he shot the truth, but newspapers can't always print the truth, Cooper says. They have to worry about offending subscribers, not all of whom want the pinched face of suffering served up with their orange juice.

"There is no work for crusaders," he came to believe. "This way, I can make up the story myself. I don't have to work around what's there."

So he came back to Littleton, to a studio-apartment fashioned from an outbuilding behind his parents' house on the edge of town, and traded 8-by-10 sheets of Kodak photo paper for the creamy white of canvas.

He has no phone, no television, no computer. If he goes anywhere, and he would rather not, he walks or hitches a ride with his parents. He's never had a driver's license. Except for occasional letters to friends, he lives in a sort of self-imposed exile, which provides him both the freedom to paint and, he says, the pressure to produce something important.

He listens to the radio, most often to public radio. He reads newspapers, novels and nonfiction. And he paints.

'He loves those people'

Cooper usually has two or three paintings in the works, often thematically linked. Each painting, or group of paintings, begins with a gut reaction to something he hears or reads, something that, to him, is contributing to the cumulative angst in the world. The result, in somber shades of blue, umber and the occasional flash of crimson, may be a rendering of the source of the pain or a sympathetic portrait of the one who feels it.

The show at Gallery C in September and October featured paintings inspired by recent events in U.S. politics: a cross-wielding George W. Bush as a ventriloquist doll of Dick Cheney and Bush as a court jester in a red argyle sweater and bell-tipped hat; a man in a business suit, crumpled in the corner of a tower, his pink slip on the floor beside him; a veteran, a woman, who has returned from combat with a Purple Heart, a severed leg and a bleak future living in the Pink Motel, Cooper's symbol for life on the way down.

The paintings of Bush are a deviation for Cooper, whose work rarely includes characters with recognizable names. Most of his paintings are populated with people whose faces are unknown but whose expressions and situations would be familiar to those who read the papers carefully, or do social work, or labor in law enforcement, or spend any time on the sidewalks of forlorn places like Littleton.

Most of his subjects are, like Cooper, sinewy; some look almost emaciated -- or maybe just worn down, their rib cages and the muscles of their legs and arms like river rocks carved by a century of rushing water. They have been captured at a moment in their lives when their choices have collided with events of the world, sometimes cataclysmically. They are prostitutes, drug addicts, mothers who leave their babies in Dumpsters.

"He loves those people in his paintings," says Andrea Gomez, a Raleigh artist and longtime friend of Cooper's. "I mean, we should all be as loved as these figures are, and some of them are hard to love."

The paintings have an almost audible quality. A groaning.

It is the sound Cooper, in his reclusiveness, says he hears all the time. A collective wailing. Painting helps him to quiet it down.

Cooper starts painting, usually, in the afternoon, in one of the three small, grimy rooms he occupies. He has a tiny kitchen, with a hot plate on which he can heat food if he has to, though he steps into his parents' house to eat when his mother cooks, if the place is quiet enough. Cooper's mother and father are licensed foster parents and almost always have one or more children -- the consequences of someone else's bad choices -- in their care.

In his cramped retreat, Cooper uses a second room to store finished paintings that haven't sold, which is most of them. Framed and ready to hang, they are stacked against three walls, leaving just enough room for him to stand in the middle and riffle through them, recalling the events that inspired them and the delicious, fulfilling feeling he had while he was creating them. That feeling is Cooper's own addiction.

"It's an emptied-out feeling, a sense of being in the proper place in time and space," he says. "I think it is what people are aspiring to when they meditate.

"When it all comes together, you are a child of the gods at that moment. And there is no substitute for it. Nothing else can compare. There is nothing else I will ever do."

He does his work in the one room that is left, which includes a desk where he stands up smaller canvases, and an easel, where he works on the expansive, 3-by-5-foot epics that allow him to take in a whole scene. Recently, he had works in progress in both places.

At the end of the day, usually not before midnight and often not until 3 a.m., he unfurls a bedroll and lies down in the space between the paintings. He goes to sleep with the images in his mind and wakes up among them. He sometimes dreams, he says, in framed compositions that dissolve when he opens his eyes.

A tough sell

Though he has artist friends whose advice he has sometimes sought on technical questions, Cooper is essentially self-taught. He keeps a copy of "The Artist's Handbook" and "The Gist of Art" next to his cans of linseed oil and turpentine, but his work may be equally informed by a quote he has written down and taped next to the easel. It is from Dag Hammarskjold, whose work as U.N. secretary-general earned him the Nobel Peace Prize but made him feel almost completely isolated in the world.

Hammarskjold said, "Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for."

Since she took him as a client 14 years ago, Charlene Harless, owner of Gallery C, says she has watched Cooper evolve as an artist. When she first met and offered to represent him, she says, she was most impressed by his passion, both for his painting and for keeping his work unpolluted by commercialization. They finally found common ground in the desire for an audience for the paintings: They both wanted young people, especially those who feel alone in this world and tortured by it, to see them.

Their working agreement requires Harless to handle all the details of showing and selling the paintings, including pricing, which Harless says she does at a rate below what the paintings are worth. If Cooper had formal training, or if he had a longer resume of shows outside her gallery, or if he could cite collections of his paintings in museums or other corporate or institutional venues, she could demand more than the $600 to $4,000 she asks for each canvas.

To a degree, the prices are almost moot because the paintings are so hard to sell. These are not landscapes that add ambience to the condo at the beach. They are what is referred to in art circles as social realism, and Cooper's role in the genre is a sort of cross between documentarian and muralist. His paintings have been compared to artists who made their names through the support of the federal Works Progress Administration in the 1930s and '40s.

"These are very potent paintings," says Harless, who has taken on the job of getting exposure for Cooper's paintings with the zeal of a missionary. "I think he is a visionary. I think he sees things with great clarity. And a lot of what he sees is what people don't want to see.

"The subjects that he paints are sort of the grimy underbelly of society. And while people are comfortable going to an institution or a museum and looking at paintings like that, they don't want to look at them every day in their home."

For instance, Harless says, among the paintings of Cooper's she has in storage is one of a man masturbating in front of the television.

"I mean, do you want to drink your coffee in the breakfast nook every morning and look at a painting of a man masturbating in front of the TV?"

He must keep painting

Harless drove to Atlanta a few years ago with a carload of Cooper's paintings hoping, against odds, to sell the company something for its collection. They bought a piece. First Baptist Church on Salisbury Street in Raleigh has a Cooper, and N.C. Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount picked one up last week after working several years to raise the money to buy it.

Some years, Harless doesn't sell any of Cooper's paintings. In good years, he earns a few thousand dollars.

Several of Cooper's paintings, some of them dating to his junior high school years, hang in his parents' house, and Delores Cooper says she can see that her son is talented. But his current work, she says, is not to her taste.

"I go to see it at the gallery," she says, "but his subject matter now isn't something that I would want to hang on my wall, for the most part. Especially, you know, with all the kids... ."

Cooper showed up for the September opening wearing his work clothes: a frayed oil-cloth hat, a checkered shirt and paint-smudged Levis that look at first glance as if they're smeared with blood. They might as well be, Cooper says.

"Nothing shows up here that I don't feel like I've bled for."

During the exhibit, Harless sold five Coopers, including a series of three portraits. Of the two other pieces, one was a resale.

When she does manage to sell one of Cooper's paintings, Harless says, it often boomerangs. With greater frequency than any other Gallery C artist's work, Cooper's paintings actually come back, with the owner asking her to resell them. The paintings are beautifully composed, Harless says, and technically excellent, using light and shadow and color skillfully to tell their stories. But they're a little too raw for most people's living rooms.

Not that it matters to Cooper, who can always put a few more miles on his broken-soled work boots. If he has to, he can ask his parents for money to mail-order paint and canvas, which they are happy to give as payment for his taking care of the yard, planting all the flowers that adorn it, fixing the plumbing when something springs a leak. The arrangement keeps him painting. He has to keep painting.

Cooper doesn't like to talk about his paintings. It goes against some sort of artist's code. But when he does, he says it's not about art. It's about the truth: finding it, wrestling it onto the cloth in a way that is so plain and so eloquent that anyone who sees it has to say, yes, that's right, that's exactly how it is.

Michael D. Schulman has a Cooper painting that came that close to the truth. Schulman, who teaches in the sociology and anthropology department at N.C. State University, has studied rural communities in the state, especially mill towns whose residents were left struggling for jobs and identities as the textile industry began its slow-motion collapse in the 1980s.

Schulman says Cooper encapsulated the grief of such a place when he painted "Milltown," which shows a disabled man in a wheelchair, hooked up to oxygen, and a lanky woman smoking a cigarette standing on the porch next to him.

It hangs in his office on campus, where young people can see it.

Staff writer Martha Quillin can be reached at 829-8989 or marthaq@newsobserver.com.

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State adds 5,300 jobs

Nov. 20, 2004
News and Observer
By Amy Martinez
 © Copyright 2004

North Carolina's job market regained its footing in October as employers added 5,300 jobs, the most in three months.

But the increase in hiring was offset by more people restarting their job searches, and the unemployment rate stayed put at 4.8 percent, the state Employment Security Commission said Friday.

October's gain reversed a loss of 2,800 jobs the month before and was the largest increase since July, when the state's payrolls grew by 10,700. Still, the gain was small by comparison: North Carolina is averaging about 8,800 new jobs a month this year, mainly because of strong hiring in the spring and early summer.

About 14,300 people entered the labor force last month, stemming a decline in the number of job seekers that began in July. Economists said an increase in the labor force is encouraging because it suggests that people were optimistic enough about their prospects to start looking again for work.

October's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was well below the national average of 5.5 percent, and significantly lower than a year ago, when 6.4 percent of North Carolina's workers were without jobs. Only Washington, where the unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent from 7.5 percent a year ago, had a bigger decrease.

Although North Carolina's job market improved in October, economists expressed concern that much of the growth was in government, which posted 6,800 new jobs.

" It's not that government jobs are bad," said Michael L. Walden, an economist at N.C. State University. "But we can't rely on government to create all the jobs. We need to have private-sector growth."

Walden said businesses probably were reluctant to hire because of high fuel costs and uncertainty surrounding the Nov. 2 presidential election. With the election decided, and fuel costs slowly descending, he predicts more hiring in the coming months.

Construction had the second-largest increase, with 2,600 new jobs. Economists speculated that the post-hurricane recovery efforts in the western part of the state led to the pickup, pointing to roads and buildings that needed repairs. Tourism added 300 jobs, followed by business and professional services, up 200.

Manufacturing shed 3,000 jobs, resulting in a net loss of 10,900 jobs this year. Most of that loss was in the past three months, and economists worry that the losses will continue as the state's textile mills and apparel factories prepare for an onslaught of inexpensive imports from China. On Jan. 1, the United States is scheduled to do away with all remaining limits on textile imports, allowing retailers to key in on China, which stands ready with upgraded factories and masses of low-wage workers.

Elsewhere, educational and health services, usually a source for new jobs, declined by 2,200 last month. Trade, transportation and utilities eliminated 800 jobs, followed by information, down 400.

Mike Helmar, who follows North Carolina for Economy.com in West Chester, Pa., said the state's jobs report is in line with the national picture for October, when U.S. payrolls swelled by 337,000. Helmar said it's not y et clear whether that growth is sustainable.

" We really can't get too excited about one month," he said.

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NCSU alum gets long-lost ring

Nov. 22, 2004
News and Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

Nick Scronce, 71, of Goldsboro received a surprise last week: his N.C. State University class ring, almost 50 years after he lost it.

Scronce, who had been in the ROTC at NCSU, had lost it when he was a young Air Force officer at an officer's club after a date took it off his finger. Then, the ring oddly turned up last week at the Alumni Affairs Office at UNC-Charlotte. It was in an envelope addressed "University of No. Carolina, Alumni Association, North Carolina," with no address, no city and no ZIP code.

Nick McEntire, UNCC's assistant director of alumni affairs, tracked Scronce down and returned the ring.

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Woman of steel forges objects of beauty

Nov. 20, 2004
News and Observer
By Diane Daniel
 © Copyright 2004

For a copy of this article, contact News Services at 515-3470.

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Farmers put out a pasture-raised spread

Nov. 21, 2004
News and Observer
By Wade Rawlins
 © Copyright 2004

For a copy of this article, contact News Services.

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Craft, design enter high art at NCSU

Nov. 21, 2004
Durham Herald-Sun
By staff report
© Copyright 2004

For a copy of this article, contact News Services at 515-3470.

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Piney Point Crab Nursery Grows Babies Quickly

Nov. 22, 2004
Associated Press; Washington Times, DC; WJLA, DC; WTOP, D.C.; WVEC, VA
By GRETCHEN PARKER
 © Copyright 2004

PINEY POINT, Md. (AP) - More than 1,600 baby blue crabs, just weeks old and still wearing slick, see-through skins, are quickly dropped one at a time into coolers filled with mesh nets.

Minutes later, they are packed into trucks and are on the way to be released into two breeding nooks in Chesapeake Bay tributaries. A new brood already is growing in this makeshift crab nursery at Southern Maryland's tip.

The bustling bunker on St. George Creek, an expansion of a marine lab run by the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute in Baltimore, is the start of what crabbers and researchers hope will be the future of the bay: a network of watermen-operated crab nurseries that can operate with little staff and a minimum of funds.

They envision a loose circle of nurseries, filled with little more than gurgling tanks, that would pump "teenage" crabs into selected tributaries around the bay. The crabs would then, as they migrate, merge with indigenous crabs in a deep channel that runs the length of the bay.

Three months later, those that survive would be sexually mature and ready to breed.

If it works, it could help stall - or halt - the collapse of the Chesapeake Bay's blue crab population. The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, a partner in the hatchery consortium, has found that spawning-age populations of bay crabs fell 80 percent over the 1990s. Harvests, though stabilized, are well below modern averages.

But the partnership, which includes the institute's Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB), isn't there yet. First, it needs solid answers about how well its lab-hatched crabs are surviving and reproducing in the wild, said Yonathan Zohar, director of COMB.

The center has hatched and tagged 100,000 crabs, several generations worth, over the last three years in a lab on the north side of Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The project is a wild success, breeding the finicky crabs year-round and guiding them through eight stages of larval development before they grow claws and are big enough for release.

Its project is an unprecedented "tagged release" of crabs, leaders say. Japan hatches thousands of crabs every year but doesn't tag or recapture them for research, Zohar said.

Ecologists at the Smithsonian center and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, a consortium partner, do the work of releasing and studying the crabs in the western shore's Rhode River and in the York River of Virginia.

Researchers are finding out that so far, the lab crustaceans are growing to be healthy adults, with a survival rate of 20 percent to 30 percent after they're pitched into the Chesapeake Bay. Their wild peers survive at a rate of just .301 percent.

The federal government is expressing confidence in the project. The consortium, which also includes North Carolina State University and the University of Southern Mississippi, gets $2 million a year from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But to get answers that could predict how feasible a network of nurseries would be, they need more crabs, Zohar said.

"Our ecologists are telling us, 'Guys, we need more crabs. We need 200,000 a year,"' Zohar said. That's partly because only a fraction of those released are able to be recaptured for study.

To make room for more newborn crabs, the toddlers needed to move to their own nursery.

COMB found this place. It's an abandoned oyster hatchery owned by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. What scientists discovered, once they filled the building with tanks and started pumping in St. George Creek water, was a surprise.

The young crabs love the creek water. They have been coddled since birth in sterile lab tanks and an artificial sea-like cocktail, but they are thriving in water pumped in from the creek.

With few controls on the water, the nursery is cheaper than the COMB lab to run. Less staff is needed, because the crabs are beyond the vulnerable larval stages.

Zohar doesn't yet know exactly how much a network of nurseries would cost to run. The budget of each would largely depend on its size.

This makeshift nursery, hidden in the woods of Piney Point, is working even better than planned, said Zohar and other researchers in the partnership. It runs with just a few staffers, but 9,000 crabs already have grown and graduated from here since the summer.

Last year, the hatchery program released 60,000 crabs. Next year, with the help of Piney Point, it will double that, said crab nutritionist Odi Zmora.

Watermen also are investing. Mick Blackistone, a crabber from Anne Arundel County, works with a nonprofit created by the Maryland Watermen's Association that raises $225,000 a year for the project. He envisions nurseries in Oxford, at the former Horsehead Wildlife Sanctuary in Queen Anne's County and in Solomons on the Patuxent River.

He encourages fellow watermen to buy into the project, while at the same time explaining that distributing lab crabs in the bay is not going to ruin their livelihood.

"One thing they're very positive about is the scientific research and knowledge we've gained," Blackistone said. "But if they think bushels of crabs are going to go from $100 to $40, that's not good. We have to explain that's not what we're talking about."

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