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Cigarette-makers to buy less leaf; quota may be cut 22%
The nation's largest cigarette- makers told the government this week that they intend to buy 29 million fewer pounds of U.S. tobacco in 2004, setting the stage for what one economist said could be a 22 percent reduction in tobacco quota next year.
Students
among hardest hit by flu bug
Doctors said college students are being hit hard by the flu bug. The Type-A
strain seems to be the culprit in this year's outbreak.
Council
of State gives green light to aquarium
A quick vote Tuesday from the N.C. Council of State may spell the beginning
of a two-year expansion project for the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.
Recruiting
Tool
Founders of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics envisioned a school
where the state's brightest and most motivated students could tackle college-level
studies.
A happy
ending for Popcorn
Popcorn, the tiny five-legged dog, gained so much notoriety even Jay Leno
made comments about her on his nightly show.
One year
later, another icy threat
Wintry squall looms on first anniversary of tree-snapping storm
NCSU's
Rivers Among 5 Finalists For Walter Camp Award
Senior QB Enjoyed Record-Setting Season
Diving
coach resigns
N.C. State on Wednesday accepted the resignation of its longtime diving coach,
who was placed on paid administrative leave two weeks ago after university
chancellor Marye Anne Fox received an e-mail message alleging misconduct by
him in 1966.
N.C.
State Diving Coach Resigns
Candler Steps Down After 36 Years
N.C.
State coach resigns over sex case
John Candler resigned as North Carolina State's diving coach.
TWEAKING,
OR HOW GAMERS RETOOL FAVORITES
Imagine buying the latest "Lord of the Rings'' DVD and discovering that
the cameras, lights, special effects and editing tools used in its making
had been included at no extra charge.
Cigarette-makers to buy less leaf; quota may be cut 22%
Dec. 4, 2003
Winston-Salem Journal
By David Rice, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Winston-Salem (NC) Journal
The nation's largest cigarette- makers told the government this week that they intend to buy 29 million fewer pounds of U.S. tobacco in 2004, setting the stage for what one economist said could be a 22 percent reduction in tobacco quota next year.
"The noose just tightened around the tobacco farmer's neck - and the quota owner's," said Peter Daniel, the assistant to the president at the N.C. Farm Bureau. "We knew that it was coming. We knew that the salvation for the tobacco farmer is a tobacco-quota buyout. And it has got to happen."
The government sets the annual tobacco quota - the amount that farmers are allowed to grow at a fixed price - based on exports and the annual purchase intentions of the nation's largest cigarette-makers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced yesterday that cigarette-makers intend to buy 254 million pounds of flue-cured leaf in 2004, down from 283 million pounds this year. At the same time, the export average that is also part of the quota formula declined by 26 million pounds, to 228.7 million pounds.
As a result, said Blake Brown, an agricultural economist at N.C. State University, the flue-cured quota for 2004 is likely to be about 412 million pounds, or a 22 percent decline from the 526 million pounds that farmers could grow this year.
The actual quota for 2004 will be announced by Dec. 15. Ann Veneman, the U.S. secretary of agriculture, can adjust the amount by as much as 3 percent under the rules governing the program.
But a flue-cured quota of 412million pounds would be just 47 percent of the average amount that farmers grew in the late 1990s, Brown said.
"It's less than 50 percent of what it was in the mid-1990s, when things were pretty stable," he said. "This is particularly difficult for quota owners and for growers that own their quota. They've seen their asset just dwindle away over the years."
In North Carolina, roughly one third of the tobacco quota is owned by active growers, and the remaining two-thirds is held by owners who lease their quota to active growers. The state has roughly 10,000 tobacco farmers and 80,000 quota owners.
With the prospect for yet another severe quota cut, "it adds a heightened sense of urgency, and I don't know how to overstate how urgent it is," Daniel said. "Words just don't capture the emphatic need for a buyout.
"It makes the growing of tobacco much more marginal, especially in the Piedmont area," he said. "Your assets just dropped 22 percent. You have to sit down mano a mano with your banker."
Another quota cut will tend to drive up the amount that growers must pay quota owners in rent, Daniel said.
"Then maybe your neighbor down the road has to get some more. Then you have competition for quota. Then you have neighbor bidding against neighbor for quota. Then you've got to sit down with your banker. It starts a very difficult process for many farmers," he said.
"We must have a way to transition this tobacco-based economy with a quota-based system to the future. And the transition that does that most efficiently is a buyout of the quota system ... or we'll have an implosion like Pillowtex."
With domestic cigarette consumption gradually declining and discount cigarette-makers who use mostly foreign tobacco now accounting for as much as 15 percent of the U.S. market, the 2004 tobacco crop will be the smallest since the tobacco-quota program began in 1938.
"We're going to grow less tobacco next year in the entire (flue-cured) belt than North Carolina alone grew just five years ago," said Graham Boyd, the executive vice president of the Tobacco Growers' Association of North Carolina. "People are pretty much shell-shocked. They're sort of numbed by the news. People aren't angry - they're just numb."
Gary Smith, who grows 300 acres of tobacco in Yadkin County with his father and brother, said yesterday that the shrinking supply would undoubtedly drive up what they pay for the quota they rent.
"Basically, it's a 22 percent pay cut," Smith said.
Smith said that when they paid their rent to one quota owner last year, he told them, "If there's a big cut, I'll want an increase. I'm taking less money."
"And others are saying the same thing," Smith said.
The Smiths own more than half the quota they grow, he said, but quota that they bought in 1997 is now half its original size. "I'm now making payments on an asset that doesn't exist," Smith said.
Active farmers vote every three years on whether to keep the tobacco program, and they are scheduled to vote again in January. Boyd said that the continued reductions in quota have at least some growers talking about ending the program so that they no longer have to pay rent for quota.
"That is a split opinion," he said. "It depends on whether you own quota or rent quota as to how you feel about that."
Frank Grainger, a Cary businessman who manufactures chemicals used by tobacco farmers, said yesterday that the quota cut will have ripple effects among fertilizer, equipment and chemical dealers.
"That's a hit we can't overcome. We can't go out and generate more acres to put it on," Grainger said. "This is a ripple effect we'll be feeling for a long time."
Some farmers contend that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., in particular, has cut its purchases of domestic leaf in recent years.
Tommy Payne, an executive vice president at Reynolds, testified before Congress this fall that if Turkish tobacco is excluded, more than half the tobacco the company buys is American.
"Our purchase intentions are based on our volume and inventory needs," Payne said this week. "It's very clear our volumes are down and have been in recent years."
Reynolds and other major cigarette-makers say that discount manufacturers enjoy a competitive advantage because they don't pay as much into a $206 billion settlement that the industry sealed with 46 states in 1998.
"Clearly they have upwards of 15 percent of the domestic market," Payne said. "Probably two-thirds of that is foreign cigarettes."
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-2nd, wrote Veneman yesterday, asking her to use the full extent of her authority to soften the blow on farmers, who he said are fighting to survive amid the uncertainty surrounding a buyout and diminishing profits.
Though efforts to win congressional approval of a quota buyout this year have failed so far, U.S. Rep. Richard Burr, R-5th, said yesterday that he still holds out hope that a buyout or a freeze of quota at current levels can still be part of an omnibus bill in the final days of the congressional session.
"I will remain somewhat optimistic," Burr said. "It's always been a long shot. We've gotten more attention in Washington the last four weeks trying to attach a buyout to an omnibus bill than a buyout has gotten the entire year.... I still remain optimistic that there's a chance, because there's a vehicle."
Students among hardest hit by flu bug
Dec. 3, 2003
News 14 Carolina
By Tony Jones, staff writer
© Copyright 2003
Doctors said college students are being hit hard by the flu bug. The Type-A strain seems to be the culprit in this year's outbreak. Students at N.C. State are among those feeling the full brunt of the virus.
"This year we've seen the trend of much earlier, earlier arrival on campus,” N.C. Medical Director Dr. Mary Bengtson said.
Dr. Bengtson said the first reported case of flu on the N.C. State campus was November 10 and the numbers have soared ever since.
"It's only December 3, we've had at least 50 students that we have done flu testing on them and a number of those have been positive,” Dr. Bengtson said.
In fact, when comparing November's numbers, N.C. State's flu cases for December are headed dramatically higher. There have been 50 cases in the first three days alone, compared to more than 230 for all of November.
Dr. David Damsker with the Wake County Health Department points to the Fuji strain of flu as the culprit and this year's flu vaccine does not protect against the Fuji strain.
"There's a phenomenon called antigenic drift in which the Panama strain has sort of mutated into the Fuji strain,” Dr. Damsker said. “It's a very similar virus. There're one or two minor differences."
Hospitals and doctors' offices around Wake County have mirrored N.C. State in terms of flu activity. As of Wednesday, Rex Hospital had reported 73 cases of flu. WakeMed and Western Wake have had 62 cases. Raleigh Children's Hospital has seen 76 cases so far this season.
Dr. Bengtson believes many of the students who've come down with the flu actually caught it last week while at home over the Thanksgiving break.
Doctors said the best way to protect yourself from the flu is good hygiene and getting a flu shot. The vaccine takes about two weeks to become effective after being administered.
Council of State gives green light to aquarium
Dec. 3, 2003
Carteret County News Times
By Kathleen Bliley, staff writer
© Copyright 2003
PINE KNOLL SHORES – A quick vote Tuesday from the N.C. Council of State may spell the beginning of a two-year expansion project for the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. The Council of State, comprised of Gov. Mike Easley and his cabinet, voted unanimously in Raleigh to approve a lease agreement whereby the private, nonprofit N.C. Aquarium Society will lease the Pine Knoll Shores facility, fund its expansion through bonds and return it to the state once completed. Aquarium Director Jay Barnes welcomed the news about the Pine Knoll Shores facility, although he declined to give a start date for the expansion or a closing date. Aquarium offices will be relocated to rental space in the Atlantic Station shopping center in Atlantic Beach. We're not in a position to announce that yet, Mr. Barnes said. But we feel real good about it. The project, now with an estimated cost of about $22 million, was slated to receive funding in 1999, but the state was soon burdened with Hurricane Floyd relief efforts and tight budgets. Meanwhile, aquariums on Roanoke Island and in Fort Fisher completed their expansions. With no state funding in sight, the Aquarium Society stepped in, and with the Council of State approval, all that stands between the Pine Knoll Shores facility and its expansion is approval of the loan, which would be retired using admission revenues from all three aquariums. The Aquarium Society's plan has received great support from Carteret County 's General Assembly delegation. Both Sen. Scott Thomas, D-Craven, and Rep. Jean Preston, R-Carteret, supported the financing plan. Rep. Preston was disheartened to see Pine Knoll Shores lose its expansion funding in 1999, and even now, she knows how dim the prospects are for a state appropriation, she said. The Aquarium Society has done a fantastic job putting this creative plan together, Rep. Preston said, pointing out that the plan has been scrutinized by the attorney general's office and the governor's office. I am very pleased that the Council of State made that decision, she said of Tuesday's vote. I think the aquarium friends and staff have done a remarkable job. Sen. Thomas, who represents Carteret, Craven and Pamlico counties, stood behind the project's economic benefits, which have been outlined in a study prepared by N.C. State University Researchers. Expanding the aquarium will create jobs and boost tourism in our area, he said Tuesday. The aquarium is a critical piece of our tourism economy and will benefit our entire region. The expansion should generate 193 jobs and $6.1 million a year, drawing more than 400,000 visitors to the Crystal Coast, Sen. Thomas said. Lawmakers committed to this project years ago, he said. I am pleased that the state finally kept its promise to Pine Knoll Shores and Carteret County . David Griffin, director of the state aquarium system, said the Council of State approved the plan with no questions or discussion, which didn't surprise him. All along, we thought the project was the right thing to do, Mr. Griffin said. Construction bids are due next Tuesday, and the Aquarium Society's plans hinge on the cost staying in a certain ballpark, he said. It is exciting, Mr. Griffin said. But we don't want to celebrate yet. Construction could start early next year, meaning the aquarium could close soon. It wouldn't open its doors again for an estimated 26 months. The original expansion plans took the aquarium from 30,000 square feet to about 77,000, but revisions bring the size to a whopping 93,000 square feet that will house a 306,000-gallon ocean tank featuring a replica of the sunken German U-boat, the U-352, off of Cape Lookout. Sharks, moray eels and a large variety of fish found off of the North Carolina coast will keep volunteer divers company as they give presentations to visitors via special communications masks. Meanwhile, another 50,000-gallon tank will feature a replica of the Queen Anne's Revenge shipwreck. Under the aquarium's new theme, From the Mountains to the Sea, the facility will introduce an otter exhibit, a stingray touch tank, a jellyfish gallery and a sport fishing exhibit. When the aquarium closes, offices will be moved to the Atlantic Station shopping center where 11,000 square feet will provide storage for the thousands of marine creatures that will go to the new facility.
Dec. 4, 2003
Winston-Salem Journal
By William L. Holmes, AP staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
Founders of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics envisioned a school where the state's brightest and most motivated students could tackle college-level studies.
But for the five-year stretch that ended in 1999, fewer students bought into the vision. Applications to the school bottomed out at 654 that year, the fewest in the school's 23-year history and a third less than just five years earlier.
Now an initiative by the legislature gives the school an advantage that no other in the country provides - free tuition for any graduate who enrolls at a public university in North Carolina.
"A lot of my friends would die to go to (the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and I have free tuition handed to me on a silver platter," said Leah Hawkins, a senior from New Bern who will graduate in the spring with the first class eligible for the grants.
The measure is expected to help reinvigorate the science and math school, which has found itself at times in recent years competing against the state's improving high schools, particularly urban magnet schools with money.
Officials of some similar schools say they've also seen applications fall as the accountability movement spread across the nation and forced public schools to get better.
Applications to the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Ill., soared to 948 in 1994 when the school got widespread publicity for its all-girl, calculus-based physics class. By 2001, the number had fallen to 539.
The school turned to a vigorous recruiting approach that reaches into middle schools and opens the campus up to prospective students at least once a month, said LuAnn Smith, the director of institutional research and enrollment management.
"I think we've become more focused," she said. "We're more driven by the data in recognizing where our enrollment is coming from."
Applications climbed to 570 this year for about 200 spots.
The N.C. science and math school used many of the same strategies to reverse an apparent drop in interest and had some success in pulling up the number of applications.
The offer of free tuition has pumped new vigor into supporters and gotten students and parents across the state to take a fresh look at the school.
Admissions officials now are bracing for an avalanche of applications, perhaps a 1,000 or more for about 300 spots. That would be the most in school history.
Dennis Lundgren, the president of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology, said he knows of no similar offer.
"That's a tremendous incentive," he said.
Since its first class in 1982, about 4,500 students have graduated from the N.C. science and math school, the first residential, public high school in the nation and the model for about a dozen schools around the country and at least three overseas.
The average SAT score is typically about 1,300, about 275 points higher than the national average.
About two-thirds of the school's graduates enroll at colleges in North Carolina, said Stephen Warshaw, senior vice president of academic programs at the school.
During the past five years, UNC Chapel Hill has taken the most - 358 - followed by N.C. State University with 229. Duke University, a private school just a few blocks from the seven-acre campus, accepted 85.
Its reputation extends nationwide as well. Ivy League schools have enrolled 49 N.C. science and math students since 1998, enough to land it on Fortune magazine's list of the nation's top 50 Ivy League feeder schools. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology took 16 N.C. science and math graduates during that time, while the California Institute of Technology enrolled five.
State Sen. Kay Hagan, D-Guilford, wants more of those students to stay in North Carolina. She was the main force behind the proposal to pay in-state tuition for N.C. science and math graduates.
"It's all about jobs and the economy of North Carolina," she said. "They are going to be the entrepreneurs and the business leaders and the really hard workers. It's a small microcosm of what we want here in North Carolina."
The state expects to spend an average of $3,000 a year on each student for 200 graduates, or $600,000 in the first year of its scholarship program. The cost will eventually grow to an estimated $2.4 million a year.
The investment will be significant, but state leaders have already seen the transforming power of an economy based on science and math. Over the past 40 years or so, the development of Research Triangle Park in the Raleigh-Durham area attracted educated, wealthy executives and researchers.
Nortel Networks, IBM, Cisco Systems, and other powerful technology-based companies have a strong presence in the region, helping to draw other businesses.
Some of those companies have stumbled during the recent economic slump, but state leaders continue to rely on science as a base for the state's financial future.
"We have to be looking at the future," Hagan said. "Education is the key to the future."
Morgan Rush, a senior from Sanford, is also leaning toward a state school after establishing ties through weekly stem-cell research she conducts with UNC medical students.
"Having the tuition grant, it's almost like the extra push all of us need to stay," she said. "It's so encouraging. We're all so grateful."
N.C. State Diving Coach Resigns
Dec. 3, 2003
WRAL-TV
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003
RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina State University Athletics Director Lee Fowler announced Wednesday that John Candler has decided to resign from his position as NCSU diving coach.
Candler will remain with the department in an administrative capacity until he officially retires March 31, 2004.
"We sincerely appreciate the contributions that John Candler has made to our diving program," Fowler said. "He has been an outstanding coach and will be missed."
Candler has served as the Wolfpack diving coach for 36 years, producing 16 All-Americas, 52 ACC champions and one Olympian. He coached more ACC champions than any other league diving coach in the 1990s, with 14 champions on the one- and three-meter boards.
In 1997, he was unanimously selected as the ACC's diving coach of the year at the men's and women's ACC Championships.
Candler had been on administrative leave for the past few weeks as NCSU investigated allegations of misconduct 37 years ago.
The investigation was triggered by an e-mail message sent to the chancellor's office by 53-year-old Jane Schneider, of East Lansing, Michigan.
Head swimming and diving coach Brooks Teal will oversee the Wolfpack divers through this season but will begin a national search for a replacement immediately.
Dec. 4, 2003
The News & Observer
By Lorenzo Perez, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
RALEIGH -- N.C. State on Wednesday accepted the resignation of its longtime diving coach, who was placed on paid administrative leave two weeks ago after university chancellor Marye Anne Fox received an e-mail message alleging misconduct by him in 1966.
John Candler, 63, who coached 16 All-Americas and 52 ACC champion divers during his 35-plus years at N.C. State, delivered his resignation letter to senior associate athletics director Nora Lynn Finch on Monday. Athletics director Lee Fowler, who was in Ann Arbor, Mich., Tuesday for the Wolfpack men's basketball game against Michigan, formally accepted Candler's resignation Wednesday.
Neither Candler's letter to Fowler nor the statement issued by N.C. State announcing his resignation offered a reason for Candler's decision to step down. In an interview Wednesday night in his Cary home, Candler said that Fox signaled her interest in having him removed by having university officials prepare a resignation letter for him to date and sign.
Candler will not retire formally until March 31, but he no longer will coach N.C. State divers.
An All-America diver at the University of Michigan who competed for his native England in the Olympic Games of 1960 and 1964, Candler pleaded guilty to indecent liberties with a 12-year-old girl in Ann Arbor, Mich., 37 years ago. Candler completed five years of probation without any violations, circuit court records from Washtenaw County, Mich., showed. Candler also pleaded guilty in 1985 to taking indecent liberties with a 15-year-old Wake County girl and received a suspended sentence. He was ordered to undergo therapy after the second conviction, and he served three years of probation.
The university placed Candler on paid leave last month after Fox's office received an e-mail message from Jane Schneider, a 53-year-old East Lansing, Mich., woman who questioned Candler's employment at the university. Fowler declined to comment Wednesday on whether the university's review of Candler's personnel file found any reference to the 1966 conviction alluded to by Schneider in her e-mail message.
But Candler said Wednesday he told N.C. State officials about his first guilty plea during his interviews in 1968 for an instructor's position in the physical education department and that N.C. State officials encouraged him to plead guilty to the 1985 charge "to get it out of the media." Candler also said that athletics department officials spent the past two weeks interviewing current and former divers and their families and found no evidence of any other complaints against him.
Candler declined to discuss any specifics concerning his two guilty pleas but said, "if I had known that 37 years later I would lose my job, I would have required trial on both occasions."
Candler said he regrets that Fox has not given him a chance to explain his case to her in person. He also questioned whether his forced retirement falls under the category of "double-jeopardy," considering that previous university officials hired him and retained him after the two convictions. Current and former divers and their families, as well as people in the athletics department, have stood by him the past two weeks, he said.
"I find it indefensible to get so much media out of old information that is known by everybody," Candler said. "I basically hope that, with all the support I've gotten from such a diverse group of people, that the chancellor will refuse my resignation. I would just cherish the opportunity to get back on the deck and coach as soon as possible."
A spokeswoman for Fox could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Until his retirement becomes official, Candler's job will be limited to off-campus administrative duties and to compiling historical data on the swimming and diving program. Candler also owns the Candler Swim & Gym Club at 1013 Jones Franklin Road, which has about 100 member families and where Candler said he offers swimming and diving lessons in the summer.
Jack Nichols, Candler's attorney, said his client will have 25 years of employment counting toward his state pension when he officially retires.
Fowler, whose tenure at N.C. State began three years ago, declined to comment on Candler's resignation or on the university investigation prompted by the e-mail. In the university news release on Candler's resignation, Fowler thanks him for his coaching impact.
"We sincerely appreciate the contributions that John Candler has made to our diving program," the statement read. "He has been an outstanding coach and will be missed."
Contacted by telephone during a team meeting Wednesday, NCSU junior diver Abby Griffith said that the team declined to comment on Candler's resignation.
Staff writer Lorenzo Perez can be reached at 829-4643.
Dec. 03, 2003
Garner News
By Juli Denning, staff writer
© Copyright 2003
Popcorn, the tiny five-legged dog, gained so much notoriety even Jay Leno made comments about her on his nightly show.
But due to a multitude of good Samaritans, she is now a normal canine.
Well, almost.
These days Popcorn has three legs instead of five.
During a two-hour operation last Monday morning, Dr. Rebecca Tudor, DVM DACVS, a board certified surgeon specializing in complex orthopedic and soft tissue cases, removed the dog's back two left legs, which resulted from an extremely rare genetic anomaly.
The story of Popcorn’s fame had its origins one Saturday a few weeks ago when she wandered up to the home of Debbie Hicks in the Umstead Park area of Raleigh. Unable to capture the frightened little dog, Debbie called her friend Liz Bell for help.
“She was petrified and it took two of us to catch her,” said Bell. “She was shivering and scared to death.”
On Monday morning, Bell carried the little six-pound Maltese-mix to Dr. Frank Ansede at Ansede Animal Hospital.
During her exam, he discovered she had an ear infection and almost all of her blondish-white hair was lost due to a severe flea allergy, both of which are serious, painful conditions for an animal. But now, with treatments, the ear infection is gone and the sores on her tiny body have finally healed being replaced by scraggly hairs.
Popcorn was also vaccinated for rabies and placed on heartworm preventative.
But, Dr. Ansede wasn’t quite sure what to do with that fifth leg.
“It’s a vestigial (an organ that has no purpose),” he explained.
He enlisted the help of Dr. Tudor and they decided the leg had to be removed.
Both of the doctors waived some of their fees and an anesthesia resident from NC State, Dr. Nigel Campbell, DVM, donated his time and expertise to monitor Popcorn for the procedure. A fourth-year veterinary student who plans to write a report on it also assisted them.
Dr. Ansede said good Samaritans and business owners rallied around Popcorn by donating over $3,000.
Her plight for life has reached not only local people but also those as far north as Wisconsin and as far south as Florida.
“It’s almost seems as she is inspiring people. Popcorn’s been like a little five-legged angel,” he said.
Popcorn’s attached leg was also removed because it was rotated at a 90-degree angle, rendering it useless.
“It was the only choice. She wasn’t using it,” said Dr. Ansede.
She would have eventually developed severe arthritis in the leg, he said.
Popcorn required eight stitches and will have a four-inch scar on her hip but she is doing great, said Dr. Ansede. She spent Monday night at his hospital but first thing Tuesday morning when she was removed from her crate, he said she bolted!
“She is very strong,” he said, laughing.
The surgery came at a tune of about $1,200. That didn’t include spaying, which will have to be performed at a later date.
Dr. Ansede said the remaining contributions would pay for spaying and further medical visits and that there would be plenty of money for Popcorn’s lifetime medical care. The remainder was donated to four worthy animal organizations – Capital Rottweiler Adoptions, Inc., Feral Cat Friends, Operation Catnip, and Rohe Rescue.
Even though the good-hearted veterinarian doesn’t anticipate ever seeing another five-legged dog, he wants to set up a “Popcorn-type fund” for other stray dogs with severe abnormalities.
“Popcorn is recovering well,” said Bell. “Her incision is healing up nicely and she gets around great!
“It's amazing how quickly she's adapting.”
The next step will be to get the tiny canine into rehab.
Vethab, Inc. in Raleigh has donated their services for initial post-operative recovery and rehabilitation for Popcorn.
After being in the news, both locally and nationally, no one has come forward to claim the tiny canine.
Dr. Ansede said Popcorn was more than likely a true stray. In speculating, he said perhaps someone tossed her mother out long before Popcorn’s birth, therefore causing her to be born in the wild.
But - there’s a happy ending to the saga of the small pooch who had more than likely wandered the streets in search of food and shelter for most of her life.
“Good news!,” said Dr. Ansede. “Mrs. Bell has fallen in love with Popcorn and decided to adopt her!”
She may have previously been a little five-legged dysfunctional stray but that was in another lifetime.
Popcorn has finally found a permanent home.
One year later, another icy threat
Dec. 4, 2003
The News & Observer
By Bonnie Rochman and Michael Biesecker, staff writers
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Three of the past four years, the first week in December has meant a winter storm -- or at least a threat.
A year ago tonight, many Triangle residents awoke to the sound of snapping branches and sizzling power lines as the Great Ice Storm of 2002 gripped the region.
Three years ago, snow was expected, but only flurries fell in Raleigh. Rocky Mount did get almost a foot of snow.
And today, forecasters are predicting mostly cold, cold rain through tonight with the possibility that some areas such as bridges might ice over. Nothing on the level of last year's paralyzing bout, although the Triad westward -- from Chatham and Randolph counties west -- could get a quarter-inch or more of ice. That's enough to bring down trees and power lines.
Sound ominous?
Forecasters can't explain; this kind of wintry squall is more typical of early January.
The Triangle is expected to dodge most of today's ice, but the situation could always change enough to warrant freezing rain advisories, issued for less than a quarter-inch of accumulation.
"While we think it's mostly going to be cold rain, we're not out of the woods yet, so stay tuned," said Kermit Keeter, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Raleigh.
And don't get too smug: Another system is expected to develop Saturday, bringing first rain and maybe snow before tapering off Sunday morning. Keeter said it was far too early for any details.
Winter doesn't officially swirl in until Dec. 21, but it feels as though it's arrived. But even as people air out their winter coats, clamor for appointments with the chimney sweep, sip hot chocolate and stock up on Ice Melt, memories of last year's blizzard are never far away.
Waiting for the evening crush of customers at Booger Mountain Christmas Trees in southern Durham, Jason Boyette wore two sweatshirts, wind-pants over a pair of ski pants, insulated gloves and ski socks.
Boyette, an N.C. State University graduate student who has worked at the lot the last five or six seasons, puffed a wispy cloud of breath as he spoke.
"This isn't cold," he said. "Last year? Now that was cold."
At Lowe's Home Improvement in Cary, salesman Brian Thornton said generator sales were up about 25 percent from normal. Ice Melt and shovels were also moving briskly. "It's the Boy Scout motto," he said. "They want to be prepared this time."
Vendors outnumbered customers at the State Farmers Market in Raleigh, where Linda Hamilton peddled firewood and sweet potatoes. Wednesday morning, she placed 35 steaming Beauregard Super Sweet sweet potatoes in a box for customers to taste. By noon, only four toasty ovals remained, snug in their aluminum foil blankets.
"They're using them for hand-warmers," said Hamilton, who was selling goods from Tony Johnson's farm in McGee's Crossroads.
At F. Scott Davis Chimney Sweep Inc. in Wake Forest, the two certified sweeps can handle up to 10 chimneys a day. But they're already fully booked into January. On Monday, the phone rang 50 times with people wanting appointments -- double the usual number of calls. The cold weather last Saturday probably turned a lot of people's thoughts toward stoking a cozy blaze, said office manager Sue Davis.
In Durham, Green Oil Co. had a one-day backlog for delivery of heating oil -- a long time to wait without warmth. Cindy Hayes, who fielded customer calls all day, said she routinely refers customers to other providers if she can't get to them fast enough.
"When it goes from 80 degrees over the weekend to 40 degrees, they think it's frostbite time," Hayes said. "People tend to wait to call us when they run completely out, then expect a truck to run right on over."
Pam Moore is used to procrastinators. She busily stacked sweetly scented oak and hickory logs, 40 sticks for $15, at the Farmers Market, but she had no takers. "People wait until the last minute," she said. "We're calling for snow maybe on Saturday, so we will probably get a lot of people Friday."
To get ready, her father dropped off a dump-truck load of wood Wednesday morning. "Just so we'd have it," Moore said. "We're prepared, because the weatherman ain't never right."
Staff writer Bonnie Rochman can be reached at 829-4871.
NCSU's Rivers Among 5 Finalists For Walter Camp Award
Dec. 4, 2003
WRAL.com
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 WRAL.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- North Carolina State University quarterback Philip Rivers, who recently had his No. 17 jersey retired by the school, is one of five finalists for the Walter Camp Foundation's 2003 player-of-the-year award.
The award is the fourth-oldest individual college football accolade in the nation. The finalists were announced Wednesday.
The winner, who is voted on by the 117 Div. I-A head coaches and sports information directors, will be announced live on Thursday, Dec. 11, during the 6 p.m. edition of ESPN's SportsCenter. The trophy will be awarded at the Camp Foundation's annual national awards banquet on Feb. 14, 2004, at the Yale University Commons in New Haven.
The 6-5, 236-pound Rivers is the 2003 Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year. He completed 311 of 438 passes and set ACC records for completion percentage (71) and yards (4,016).
Rivers threw 29 touchdown passes, compared to just seven interceptions, and he had four 400-yard passing games for the 7-5 Wolfpack.
Walter Camp, a former Yale athlete whom some consider the "Father of American football," first selected an All-America team in 1889. The Walter Camp Football Foundation -- a New Haven-based all-volunteer group -- was founded in 1967 to perpetuate Camp's ideals and to continue the tradition of annually selecting the All-America team.
The other finalists for the player-of-the-year award, are:
Larry Fitzgerald, a sophomore wide receiver at the Unversity of Pittsburgh who leads the NCAA in touchdown receptions, receiving yards and receiving yards per game,
Eli Manning, a senior quarterback at the University of Mississippi, who needs just 60 yards to break his own single-season passing record,
Chris Perry, a senior running back at the University of Michigan, the Big Ten offensive player of the year, who led the conference in rushing,
Jason White, a senior quarterback at the University of Oklahoma, who threw a single-season school-record 40 touchdown passes for the undefeated and No. 1-ranked team.
Molecular Memory Durability Demonstrated
Dec. 4, 2003
Science a Go Go
By staff report
© Copyright 2003
In the ongoing quest to create computing devices that are both incredibly small and incredibly powerful, scientists - envisioning a future beyond the limits of traditional semiconductors - have been working to use molecules for information storage and processing.
Until now, researchers were skeptical that such molecular devices could survive the rigors of real-world manufacturing and use, which involve high temperatures and up to one trillion operational cycles. But scientists at the University of California, Riverside and North Carolina State University have demonstrated that molecular memories are indeed both durable and practical - a finding that could spur development of the technology.
The results, in a paper titled "Molecular Memories that Survive Silicon Device Processing and Real-World Operation," are described in the journal Science.
Dr. Jonathan S. Lindsey, at NC State and one of the paper's authors, said the team was faced with a very basic problem. "If molecular materials can't compete against semiconductor materials under the rigorous conditions of the real world," he said, "then trying to implement them in electronic devices would be pointless. Because our goal is to develop molecule-based memory devices, we first had to test their durability and stability."
Led by Dr. David F. Bocian, at the University of California, the team attached porphyrins - disk-shaped organic molecules similar to chlorophyll - with specific electronic properties to an electroactive surface, storing information in the form of the molecules' positive charges.
After a series of tests, the scientists found that the resulting molecular memories were "extremely robust" and offered clear advantages over traditional semiconductor-based technology.
"The porphyrin-based information-storage elements exhibit charge-retention times that are long (minutes) compared with those of the semiconductor elements in dynamic random access devices (tens of milliseconds)," the university chemists report in their paper.
In addition, their testing showed that such molecule-based information-storage devices "meet the processing and operating challenges required for use in electronic devices." In particular, they proved that "these molecules are stable under extremes of temperature (400°C) and large numbers of read-write cycles (1 trillion)."
That demonstrated stability, they conclude, "indicates that these molecular architectures can be readily adapted to current semiconductor fabrication technology and operated under the conditions required for a practical device."
By establishing the practicality of molecular memories, says Lindsey, the findings should help eliminate doubts about the role of organic materials in electronic devices.
"There is a perception that organic molecules are fragile," Lindsey said. "The critical question has been whether, given the high temperatures and other stresses of production and use, any molecule-based devices could meet functionality standards. I believe our research has laid this question to rest, and demonstrated that appropriately chosen molecules can readily function in practical devices."
That knowledge, he said, should speed development of molecule-based electronics, which promise smaller, faster and far more powerful computers and other applications.
N.C. State coach resigns over sex case
Dec. 4, 2003
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By staff report
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- John Candler resigned as North Carolina State's diving coach after an investigation turned up his 1966 conviction on a sex charge involving a 12-year-old girl.
The university said Wednesday that Candler will remain with the athletic department in an administrative capacity until he retires on March 31.
An investigation into Candler's past was triggered by an e-mail message sent Nov. 19 to Chancellor Marye Anne Fox's office by Jane Schneider, 53, of East Lansing, Mich.
According to circuit court records from Washtenaw County, Mich., Candler pleaded guilty in 1966 to indecent liberties with a 12-year-old girl. He served five years of probation.
Schneider had said she knew the victim in the Michigan case.
Candler told WRAL-TV in Raleigh that the university knew about the case in Michigan when he was hired.
"I would prefer not to resign, but the discomfort that's been caused to my wife, my family, my children and grandchildren, I just don't think it's fair," Candler said.
Candler said he will continue to run a swim club he operates in Raleigh.
Calls to Schneider and Candler by The Associated Press weren't returned Wednesday.
In 1985, Candler was charged with taking indecent liberties with a 15-year-old Wake County girl. According to Wake County Superior court records, Candler pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence. He served three years of probation and was ordered to undergo therapy.
Attorney Jack Nichols hasn't denied that the Candler in the Michigan case is the same person he represents in Raleigh.
Candler coached 16 All-Americans, 49 Atlantic Coast Conference champions and one Olympian in his 36 years at N.C. State.
Swimming coach Brooks Teal will oversee the divers through this season.
TWEAKING, OR HOW GAMERS RETOOL FAVORITES
Dec. 3, 2003
New York Times News Service
By MICHEL MARRIOTT, staff report
© Copyright 2003
RALEIGH, N.C. - Imagine buying the latest "Lord of the Rings'' DVD and discovering that the cameras, lights, special effects and editing tools used in its making had been included at no extra charge. Or finding your favorite CDs crammed with virtual recording studios, along with implicit encouragement from the producer to remix the music, record your own material and post it all on the Internet.
It might seem far-fetched - except to computer game developers.
For years, players have found ways to hack into the digital DNA, the primary computer code that operates some of their favorite games, and alter its rules. Consequently, weapons can be made more lethal, explosions flashier and more thunderous. And game characters can acquire godlike invulnerability or have their steely-eyed glares swapped for the hapless glaze of, say, a Homer Simpson.
In recent years, players dedicated to modifying store-bought computer games have morphed into an underground movement - mod makers, as they often call themselves. Now they are showing signs of breaking into the mainstream as game developers are increasingly willing to give away the very software tools they use to construct the games, including them on the disc with the game itself.
As a result, working alone or in teams, the mod makers are spending hundreds of hours tweaking or completely redrawing popular games to be played on their own terms. The payoff is fun and bragging rights, and just maybe a career in the multibillion-dollar electronic game industry.
Those various motivations drew hundreds of mod makers to a game company's weekend seminar at North Carolina State University on the finer points of animation and building virtual worlds, allowing them to compare notes on poly modeling and the intricacies of static mesh.
"I've been wanting to make video games ever since I was 9 years old,'' said Dan Jones, 23, who drove 17 hours from Siloam Springs, Ark., to be here. He said that when his grade-school classmates were doodling comic-book heroes, he was sketching side-scrolling video-game environments inspired by Nintendo's Mario Brothers.
Jones, a recent graduate of John Brown University in Siloam Springs, where he majored in digital media, is working with two friends to build a medieval third-person action game. His path as a mod maker, Jones said during a lunch break, was inevitable: ``There are a lot of creative people who have grown up playing video games and stuff. You kind of want to make what you already know.''
Another mod maker, Maegan Walling, 26, added, "People are taking the tools that someone else made and using them as sort of a paintbrush to define their own canvas.'' Walling joined friends and classmates from Full Sail Real World Education, a multimedia training center in Winter Park, Fla., for a road trip to Raleigh. "They are really, really expressing their own creativity and defining the ideal environment for their own game play. I would go as far to say that it is an art.''
Whether mods are art is debatable. But a group of major computer-game makers agree that mods are good for the industry. For one thing, they create a rich secondary market for aging games being bought for raw materials. And some designers say that game makers can inspire loyalty, and sales, by creating games that remain fresh by lending themselves to modification or even serving as the basis for entirely different games. One company in particular, Epic Games - the co-producer of Unreal Tournament, the best-selling first-person-shooter franchise that is a favorite among mod makers - is flinging open its doors to modifications and complete game makeovers called conversions.
And some mod makers, like Blake Politeski, are making names for themselves with downloadable hit mods like his Infection, a horror and survival game that was built out of Unreal but evokes both the creepiness of the long-running video-game series Resident Evil and Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds'' radio play.
Another mod that has thousands of people frantically mouse-clicking is Red Orchestra, a lavishly rendered game that places players at the Russian front of World War II. Using Unreal's core 3-D graphics program, which is called a game engine, the 50 or so mod makers have meticulously replaced Unreal's futuristic combat elements of particle-beam rifles and space stations for period-perfect rifles and the bombed-out towns of the 1940s.
"The ultimate goal of Red Orchestra is to create something unique to the average gamer and, at the same time, something visually delightful and fun,'' said Jeremy Blum, a 16-year-old from North Castle, N.Y., who is part of the mod's self-assembled development team.
Web sites like GameSpy's Fileplanet (www.fileplanet.com) and Planet Unreal (www.planetunreal.com) include mod news, message boards and free downloads of homemade games like Infection and Red Orchestra.
And not all mods are games. Some artists and programmers are using game tools and engines to animate their own digital movies, known as machinima (mah-SHIN-ee-mah). This fall the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, held its second annual Machinima Film Festival in recognition of what the museum terms "an emerging art form.''
Epic was hardly the first game developer to share its digital toolbox with consumers. Id Software of Mesquite, Texas, a pioneer of 3-D game graphics and design, included software to remake or create wholly new environments in which the game could be played in its breakthrough Doom and Quake games of the early 1990s. And Neverwinter Nights, by the Canadian-based BioWare Corp., was initially successful, some players recall, because of the digital tools that it included for reworking the game.
Epic's mod-making tools come on the Unreal Tournament 2003 game disc. But company executives say they plan to go much further when they release the much-awaited 2004 version of the futuristic combat game in February. Mark Rein, Epic's vice president, said a special-edition version of the new game would not only include the popular Unreal Editor tool package, but an additional DVD would contain hours of step-by-step video instruction on making mods.
So far, mod makers say, there is no "Mod Making for Dummies'' book.
To further encourage gamers to do more than simply play games, Epic is co-sponsor of a contest for mod makers in which winners will receive up to $1 million in cash and prizes, as well as a lucrative licensing agreement to use the Unreal game engine. This would permit winners to actually sell their game mods commercially. Rein said the makers of such high-profile games as Half-Life and Splinter Cell pay as much as $400,000 for the license.
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Epic, which is also based in Raleigh, was a prime sponsor of the two-day mod-making seminar, which was called Unreal University.
Zachariah Inks, 25, who is studying computer animation at Full Sail, was among those attracted.
"I really like games,'' Inks said during a short break between marathon classes on character modeling and a software program called UnrealScript. ``But a nice end of it is that you can do cinematic things, making computer-animated movies.''
Practically all computer games, whether played on heavy-duty desktop computers or on game consoles like PlayStation 2 and Xbox, have short introductory movies and intermittent cinematic narratives called cut scenes. For years, these scenes were made separately, some even conventionally filmed in studios with actors, and inserted in the game. More recently, game makers have been creating the scenes digitally and running them on the game engine. Epic created its own software, Matinee, to create and manage these scenes.
Inks uses various programs, including Matinee, which is part of Unreal Tournament 2003, to create freestanding short films - that is, machinima. "It's a nice creative outlet,'' he said of his work, which he hoped may attract the attention of prospective employers. He noted that a game developer could have 100 people working on a single game, but that working on the ``movie side of it'' could be more solitary and satisfying.
Right now, he said, he is using the Epic game engine to create a showcase of his work as a demo reel to help him land a job when he completes his two-year degree next year. He said he wanted either to work in the game industry or to make movies in an increasingly digital Hollywood, adding that he saw abundant opportunities for digital animators in both areas because computer games are becoming more like movies and movies are becoming more like computer games.
"I see the mod community giving me a sense of what it takes to succeed professionally and what really goes on,'' Inks said. "When you start in school you are in awe of everything, but as things go on and you work with it the magic becomes more theory and practice. You get to see what actually goes into this stuff.''
Cliff Bleszinski, the 28-year-old lead designer for Epic, said he looked at mod makers as a rich and renewable resource for future computer game making. When he joined Epic 11 years ago, he was a struggling amateur game maker. Now part of his job is to search the Web for what he considers great mods that the company can purchase to use in future games. He is also on the lookout, he said, for new talent.
"This is one of the very few entertainment mediums in which you see this kind of organic process happen,'' said Bleszinski, whose highlighted, tousled blond hair gives him a skater-boy aura. "I think this industry is really kind of grounded a lot closer to its fans, to its roots, than a lot other businesses.''
Perhaps, he continued, it is because "we all started as fans of this business and we respect our fans, the people who modify our games and make mods.''
Rein, the Epic vice president, estimates that nearly a third of the company's 22 or so employees began as mod makers.
Tom Swogger, a 23-year-old mod maker who drove from Arkansas with Dan Jones, said all the game-design classes were useful. There were other dividends, too.
"It was great to see that all these guys are regular guys just like us,'' Swogger said of people like the Epic Games founder and president, Tim Sweeney, who milled about and chatted easily with admirers and colleagues. "They had to start somewhere, too. It's sort of encouraging.''