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Ag leader plans bid for state school chief
Marshall Stewart, an N.C. State University faculty member who coordinates agricultural vocational education programs, announced Tuesday that he will run for state schools superintendent next year.Women's shelter is being born in Durham
Nurturing to be aim of new refugeFormer N.C. State Diving Coach Fights Deportation Order
Former N.C. State Diving Coach Fights Deportation Order
Ag leader plans bid for state school chief
Dec. 31, 2003
The News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Marshall Stewart, an N.C. State University faculty member who coordinates agricultural vocational education programs, announced Tuesday that he will run for state schools superintendent next year.
Stewart, 40, is the first Democrat to announce a bid for the office.
A lifelong educator, Stewart now serves as state agricultural education coordinator. He worked for two years as a teacher in Sampson County and for six years as an administrator for the national Future Farmers of America organization.
Stewart said that he was committed to making the public schools work and that he believes it is an opportune time to seek the office.
"The public schools were very good to me. Quite frankly, I think there is more right going on in our schools than wrong. We just have to build on that," Stewart said.
Current schools superintendent Mike Ward, also a Democrat, has said he will not seek another term in the office.
Three Republicans -- Michael Barrick of Lincolnton, Bill Fletcher of Cary and Jeanne Smoot of Raleigh -- have also announced that they will seek the office in 2004.
Women's shelter is being born in Durham
Dec. 31, 2003
The News & Observer
By Vicki Cheng, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
DURHAM -- Scheduled to open as soon as February, the Good Samaritan Inn will offer more than shelter for homeless women and children. The former motel also will be a refuge for female victims of domestic violence, complete with surveillance equipment and a remote-controlled gate surrounding the property.
"The majority of the women that come to us that have been in abusive situations, they will say, 'I didn't leave sooner, because I felt trapped, that I could not provide for my children,' " said Gail Mills, co-founder of the Durham Rescue Mission. The rescue mission, a Christian social services organization, has spent $1 million on its project and expects an additional $2 million in in-kind donations and volunteer labor will go into it before it's finished.
"We are trying to get the word out that we are more than a shelter," Mills said Tuesday. "We are also giving these women tools."
For more than a year, volunteers have been renovating the building at 507 E. Knox St. to provide housing for up to 150 -- triple the number of women housed now near the mission's main campus on East Main Street. "This is an area we want to grow in," Mills said Tuesday.
With donations from the Cannon Foundation and the Southwest Durham Rotary Club, the Good Samaritan Inn will be equipped with $17,000 in security equipment, including Web-based video cameras. Visitors will have to check in with a gate attendant and again at a welcome center. Outside doors will be locked at all times.
"We want to know who's on campus, to help these mothers and their children feel safer," Mills said.
In a few weeks, 19 new computers should be installed in a laboratory at the shelter, where women can learn to use programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point. "That really would help these women get a job that would pay a living wage," Mills said.
Several civic organizations, private companies and nonprofit organizations donated $42,000 in playground equipment in October. And N.C. State University students designed a garden.
More than 2,000 volunteers have renovated the building on weekends and evenings, but several tasks remain before the building gets its occupancy permit, Mills said.
Staff writer Vicki Cheng can be reached at 956-2415.
Former N.C. State Diving Coach Fights Deportation Order
Dec. 30, 2003
WRAL.com
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 WRAL.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Department of Homeland Security is keeping a former North Carolina State University diving coach behind bars.
John Candler was detained on immigration matters and granted bond earlier in December, but the government appealed. He resigned from his job after a woman brought his 1966 child molestation conviction to the attention of university officials.
The native of England has been in the process of appealing a deportation order since 1998. He was recently moved to the Mecklenburg County Jail.
Candler has a hearing in Atlanta on Jan. 16.