Charlotte.com: Breaking News

Photos document a dark era

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:52 EDT

The haunting portraits photographer Lewis Hine made in November 1908 of Gastonia's cotton mill kids were meant to document abuses of child labor laws.

One hundred years later, the images are returning to the community as a permanent exhibit on the vanishing textile culture.

The N.C. Humanities Council, Preservation North Carolina and other sources recently awarded grants for “Standing on a Box: Lewis Hine's National Child Labor Committee Photography in Gaston County, 1908.”

The multi-part project this fall includes a photography exhibit, a scholarly panel discussion of the textile industry and culture, and a concert of mill music.

A communitywide book reading begins in September, focusing on Elizabeth Winthrop's historical novel “Counting On Grace,” inspired by Hine's photo of a girl who worked in a Vermont mill in 1910. On Nov. 12 and 13, Winthrop will do presentations in Gastonia.

Also, the library will host a 100th anniversary event, which includes a gathering of people related to the children in Hine's images.

“The project will enhance the public's understanding of our textile history and heritage as reflected in the Hine photos,” said project coordinator Carol Reinhardt with the Gaston County Public Library. “And we hope it'll spark community discussion of how that history influences us in the present and future.”

The project is a spinoff of an effort by Gastonia native and UNC Chapel Hill professor Robert Allen to trace relatives of the mill children in the pictures down to the present.

Allen, who teaches in the American Studies program at UNC, found the Gastonia images two years ago in the Library of Congress while researching an unrelated project.

Considered one of the 20th century's most important photographers, Hine was commissioned by the National Child Labor Committee to document violations of child labor laws in different industries. In 1908, there was no federal child labor law.

He photographed thousands of cotton mill children, taking careful notes about his subjects, including names and comments.

In Gastonia, Hine photographed most of the young millworkers outside of the textile plants as they were leaving their shifts.

The National Child Labor Committee donated thousands of the photos and negatives to the Library of Congress in 1954, and they are now in the public domain.

Allen located more than a dozen descendants of people shown in the photographs, including 88-year old Nita Groves, whose father, Eugene Bell, was photographed in the Loray Mill village.

Groves, who lives in Gastonia, is planning to attend the gathering of descendants with her children.

“It's exciting,” she said. “I think all my children will appreciate it.”

The exhibit of 11-by-14 photos will be shown at the Gaston County Museum of Art and History in Dallas and the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte.

The photos will return to the Gastonia library, where they'll be stored until they'll go inside the Loray Mill when the a renovation project is completed.

The 107-year-old building, sometimes called the Firestone, is owned by Preservation North Carolina and isn't open to the public. Atlanta-based developers plan to convert the 600,000 square feet of space into offices, stores, classrooms, apartments and condos.

The six-story Loray – a centerpiece of the South's textile industry – will be a permanent home for striking images taken almost in its shadow.

“These photographs were taken as a part of a national campaign to expose the wide-spread practice of child labor and to shape public opinion in New York and Washington,” Allen said. “One hundred years later, we're returning them to the communities they came from – where they were never meant to be shown. We'll also be connecting these images with the lives of some of the young people Hine memorialized in 1908. It's extremely gratifying.”

Man chokes to death climbing in window

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:20 EDT

MARION, S.C. -- Authorities say a man trying to break into his ex-wife's home through a tiny window got stuck and choked to death.

Marion County deputies tell WPDE-TV that someone called 911 on Thursday morning after seeing 46-year-old Tommy Dixon hanging from the window several feet above the ground.

Investigators say they think Dixon was standing on a trash can trying to get through the window when the can slipped from under him, leaving his head stuck in the opening.

Family members say they don't believe investigators because the window was so small.

Deputies say they are still investigating Dixon's death.

23-year-old wins Miss S.C. pageant

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 08:19 EDT

Anna Perry, a 23-year-old representing Lexington, won the Miss South Carolina pageant Saturday night.

Perry, from Florence, wins a $20,000 college scholarship and will represent the state in the Miss America pageant.

First runner-up was Miss Columbia, Grace Wepner, and second runner-up was Miss Whitmire, Danielle Wilson.

Taylor Fitch, Miss Upstate Teen, is the new Miss South Carolina Teen. The 17-year-old from Anderson wins a $5,000 savings bond and an opportunity to compete nationally in the Miss America's Outstanding Teen pageant.

Flight cuts means plans denied?

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:33 EDT

Along with reducing flights from Charlotte, service cuts planned by many airlines could mess up area residents' carefully laid travel plans.

Betty Gomes learned Wednesday that her late September trip to Sacramento, Calif. – connecting in Salt Lake City on the return – suddenly had an extra stop in Cincinnati. That's because Delta is dropping its nonstop service between Charlotte and Salt Lake City this fall.

“The real kicker,” Gomes said via e-mail, “is that the flight from Salt Lake City to Cincinnati leaves two hours before I am scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake City.”

Gomes said she spoke with a Delta customer service representative who helped her reschedule the return trip, as well as fix a problem on her outbound flight.

Other area travelers also may find themselves adjusting itineraries as airlines scale back Charlotte operations.

US Airways, Charlotte's dominant carrier, hasn't said if any Charlotte flights will be among the roughly 8 percent in cuts this fall and 7-9 percent in cuts next year.

Other airlines, though, have started trimming service as they try to offset soaring fuel costs.

AirTran's nonstop service from Charlotte to Orlando ends Sunday, and United will drop its morning flight to Denver after July 11, leaving only a late afternoon flight.

Bigger cuts will come this fall. Besides making its Salt Lake City route – the only nonstop service from Charlotte – seasonal and stopping it in September, Delta plans to cut its three flights to New York's La Guardia Airport. The airline will, however, add a third daily flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and add more seats on its service to Atlanta.

American Airlines also is halting service to La Guardia, pulling its five daily flights from Charlotte in early November. That would leave US Airways as the only carrier with nonstop service to that airport from Charlotte. In addition, American will cut one of its five flights to Chicago and one of its three flights to St. Louis – a route that had four daily nonstops a few months ago.

Those reductions come after AirTran stopped its direct service to Chicago's Midway Airport in January, and Midwest Airlines pulled out of Charlotte in April, leaving US Airways with the only nonstop service to Milwaukee, Wis.

Because US Airways operates more than 80 percent of flights at Charlotte/Douglas International, cuts by other airlines typically don't have a sweeping impact.

But some travelers look to other carriers for cheaper connecting flights through their hubs instead of more expensive nonstops on US Airways.

Even business travelers have headed for the airport's A concourse – where most non-US Airways carriers have gates – in search of a better deal.

Bob Sherard is national business manager for Altra Industrial Motion, which makes power transmission products. Sherard said via e-mail that he has had to fly out of Greensboro – connecting in Charlotte – to get lower fares, and that he's not looking forward to carriers cutting flights in Charlotte.

“That will just give US Airways another reason to jack up their prices even more,” he said. “I want to see US Airways have more competition out of Charlotte, not less.”

Music was his 1st career choice

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:32 EDT

A business trip last year to St. Petersburg, Russia, prompted the latest read for Piedmont Natural Gas CEO Thomas Skains.

He recently cracked “Peter the Great” by Robert Massie, a choice in line with Skains' partiality to biographies and history. His all-time favorite work of nonfiction is “American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964” by William Manchester.

On the fiction front, he enjoys interesting characters. The Texas native's favorite is the Pulitzer winning “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry.

Skains gets his morning news dose from the Observer, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. During the day, he's reading online. For pleasure reading, he enjoys golf and travel magazines.

His loaded iPod – jazz, R&B, pop and rock – reflects a love of music, his first career choice.

Skains, 51, started college as a music major, attending on a scholarship for his skilled trumpet playing. His older brother, a mentor, persuaded him to switch to business. But he put himself through college and law school playing with orchestras and jazz and dance bands in Houston. He also freelanced for touring entertainers, including Tom Jones.

Skains doesn't play much anymore, although he broke out the trumpet a couple of years ago for a ribbon cutting at Providence Day School. For his 50th birthday, Skains' wife reconditioned his trumpet and flugelhorn and had a silencing technology added.

“She's encouraging me to practice but do it quietly,” he joked.

Feedback sought for northeast light rail

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:25 EDT

The public will get a chance this week and next to offer more input on the proposed Northeast Corridor light-rail line, which could be running between the uptown area and northeast Mecklenburg County by late 2015.

Danny Rogers, project manager for the 11-mile Northeast line, says people who attend the public meetings Thursday and July 15 can participate in a discussion that will help planners answer questions about where the light-rail line would swing over to join North Tryon Street, where it is expected to run in the median northward toward UNC Charlotte.

Should the line serve the Plaza/Eastway neighborhoods behind Asian Corners mall, and then join North Tryon near Old Concord Road? Or should the line meet North Tryon near the Sugar Creek intersection, where it would serve the Hidden Valley neighborhood, Asian Corners shopping center and the nearby retail district?

Meeting times:

Thursday: 6-8 p.m., Oasis Shriners Center, 604 Doug Mayes Place.

July 15: 6-8 p.m., Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church, 101 West Sugar Creek Road.

Steve Lyttle

Meck briefs

Charlotte

The number of residents in Historic South End is expected to triple in the next two years, reaching a population of about 7,000, according to Charlotte Center City Partners.

The growth comes as developers complete several housing projects in the area. Observers say the communities will create a residential district where none existed, triggering a second wave of retail, restaurant and entertainment venues.

Much of the growth, they say, is because of the light rail.

Historic South End spans from Morehead Street on the north to Remount Road on the south. Its east side is bordered by South Boulevard; its west side bordered by South Tryon Street. Nichole Monroe Bell

Regional briefs

Caldwell County

Summer is not usually a time of heavy wildfire activity in Caldwell County.

But this year the state Forest Service and local fire departments in the county already have seen a number of wildfires as the weather starts to get hotter.

The wildfire activity in the county during the first six months is down from what it was at the same time last year, when drought conditions really started taking their toll.

Caldwell County Ranger Rusty Dellinger said his agency has responded to about 100 fires that have burned roughly 210 acres so far in 2008. The largest of those was a 53-acre fire in eastern Caldwell County off Brandy Place near the Alexander County line June 18 and a 40-acre fire off Valway Road north of Lenoir in January.

The Fire Service responded to 207 wildfires last year in Caldwell County, almost twice as many as its five-year average of 104. McClatchy-Tribune Regional News

Union County Weddington

Developers, seeking to prove that water from a plant they want to build in The Woods development would be safe, are comparing water from a similar plant to water from local sources.

Residents oppose the project and continue to voice their opinions to town leaders.

The town planning board recommended that the council turn down The Woods by a 4-2 vote at its June 23 meeting.

The council must hold a public hearing before voting. Anderson says that during its July 14 meeting, officials likely will call for the hearing, which could then be held as soon as July 24.

Until then developers hope to prove their Siemens membrane bioreactor plant would work and, by recycling water, help solve North Carolina's water shortage. Ryan Basen

S.C. capital Columbia

Fifty recommendations on how the state can reduce greenhouse gas emissions have been compiled by a panel assembled by South Carolina's governor.

The Climate, Energy and Commerce Advisory Committee plans to issue its report later this month, its leader, Rep. Ben Hagood, told The Post and Courier of Charleston.

Gov. Mark Sanford created the committee in February 2007. The report will be posted online. The public will be invited to comment for a final report to be given to the governor and lawmakers this fall, Hagood said.

The report includes work by more than 100 people and groups from utilities to environmentalists to the academic community. North Carolina is the only other state in the Southeast to issue a similar report. Associated Press

South Carolina Litchfield Beach

Authorities say a shark apparently bit a 17-year-old girl in knee-deep water off Litchfield Beach in Georgetown County.

Sheriff's Lt. Jim Edwards told The Sun News of Myrtle Beach that the girl from Columbia was bitten in the foot about 2 p.m. Saturday. Associated Press

Police digest

Pee Dee region, S.C. Marion

A man trying to break into his ex-wife's home through a tiny window got stuck and choked to death, authorities said.

Marion County deputies told WPDE-TV that someone called 911 on Thursday morning after seeing 46-year-old Tommy Dixon hanging from the window several feet above the ground.

Investigators say they think Dixon was standing on a trash can trying to get through the window when the can slipped from under him, leaving his head stuck in the opening.

Family members say they don't believe investigators because the window was so small. Associated Press

Candidates focus on high prices at pump

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:21 EDT

The political theater at the gas pumps in this Raleigh suburb quickly evolved into a shouting match.

Democratic Congressman Bob Etheridge was trying to talk to a small group several days ago about his bill to curb energy market manipulation. His Republican challenger, Dan Mansell, kept interrupting, saying more drilling and more oil refineries – not more regulation – were needed.

“I'm sorry he is such an angry young man,” Etheridge told a handful of people at the T.R. Lee Gas Station, which has been a Main Street landmark in Clayton since 1956.

“I'm angry about the energy costs,” shot back Mansell, who is 52.

Gas stations have replaced barbecue joints on the political circuit. With gas prices rising above $4 per gallon in many places, political candidates are scrambling to show voters that they feel their pain at the pump. There are calls for investigations, offshore drilling, new mileage standards, tax breaks for hybrids, and federal gas-tax holidays.

Candidates from the two parties have offered markedly different responses.

Republican candidates, including presidential hopeful John McCain, N.C. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and GOP gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory, are calling for the end of the 27-year ban on oil and gas exploration off the Atlantic Coast, including North Carolina. On Thursday, the state Senate released a statement calling for offshore drilling.

Democrats, including presidential candidate Barack Obama, U.S. Senate candidate Kay Hagan, and gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue oppose offshore oil drilling.

Ken Medlock, an economist and energy expert at Rice University in Houston, said the political debate is misinformed.

Medlock said it would be years before offshore drilling would cut prices at the pump and said critics exaggerate the environmental risks of drilling. He cited studies showing that offshore platforms were far safer than the oil tankers now being used to transport oil.

“The only thing we can do is change our own habits,” Medlock said. “Conservation is the most powerful tool we have for the long term.”

North Carolinians support offshore drilling by more than a 2-1 majority, according a poll conducted last week by Public Policy Polling, a Raleigh polling firm with Democratic ties. The survey found that 54 percent support drilling, 26 percent oppose it, and 20 percent are not certain. Other polls have shown even greater support. National polls show similar results.

Aaron letter is history in his hands

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:05 EDT

Here is the letter, seven lines long, written on a two-hole sheet of notebook paper. It is an old letter, speckled with time, folded and unfolded and, finally, placed in a plastic sheath collectors call a top loader.

Jeffrey Gitomer holds the sheath up to eye level.

“Mobile, Alabama,” he says. “November 22, 1951.”

He begins to read.

“Dear Mr. Pollack. I receive you letter, and it is entirely satisfactory with my parents Mr. & Mrs. Aaron, that I may join the Indianapolis Clowns next season.”

The words were written to Syd Pollack, owner of a Negro League baseball team. The author is 17-year-old Henry Aaron, the future home run king, not yet a professional baseball player, even then polite and dignified. “My parents Mr. & Mrs. Aaron.” So intimate. Priceless.

Well, not priceless. Four months ago, Gitomer, a Charlotte businessman, paid $21,000 for the letter at a sports auction outside Philadelphia. He outlasted several others, including the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, ultimately bidding the most anyone remembers for a modern athlete's penned note.

And yes, he would be the first to say he might have overpaid. But Hank Aaron is his hero, and if we're to learn anything about those who collect pieces of heroes, it's this: Value is defined as how badly you want something.

What is it, then, that Gitomer wants?

He is 62 years old, a college dropout who has built a sales training empire. He has written eight best-selling books – including the original, Little Red Book of Selling – each a blend of pep talking, pants kicking, digestible sales tips. He is, friends say, charming and ribald – and like his books, he speaks in blustery declaratives.

“In any field,” he says, “there is an expert, a world-class expert, and there's THE world-class expert. I'm THE world-class expert in sales.”

The longtime Charlottean also is owner of a startling collection of sports memorabilia, housed in a well-wired hideaway secret to most who know him. There, he keeps jerseys and balls and programs and photos, most of them one of a kind.

It's a world we sometimes sneer at but kind of understand, a universe that begins with a kid leaning a 10-cent baseball card against a nightstand lamp and ends with an adult paying thousands, tens of thousands, for that same kind of connection.

“I bid to own,” he says. “Not to outbid someone else. I buy what I want.”

What he wants, more than most of the pieces he already has, is something he can't buy. He wants to meet the man who wrote the letter in his hands.

“Sincerely yours,” he reads. “Henry Aaron.”

Then he looks up. And he lets out a breath.

“Totally cool,” he says.

A piece of rich relevance

More than 1,100 items were up for bidding March 7 and 8 at the prestigious Hunt Auction, 30 miles west of Philadelphia. But it was the Hank Aaron letter, one of several pieces from the estate of Syd Pollack, that intrigued auction house owner David Hunt. “I'm a big fan of historically relevant pieces,” he says. “What caused them to be created? What's the story?” He set the letter's value at $3,000-$4,000.

About 500 bidders were present, either in a hotel conference room or participating online. That's where Ray Doswell was, at his computer at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. Doswell, the curator, always gets a heads-up when Hunt auctions black baseball artifacts – and the Aaron letter, well, it was special.

“That letter – that's where the light goes on for people,” says Bob Kendrick, the museum's spokesman. “All of a sudden, these stories start to ring a little more true. They know what Hank accomplished and what Willie Mays accomplished. But that letter, it's a validation, a piece of our story.”

A piece. That's what Jeffrey Gitomer calls his collectibles, too. A piece of Tiger, of Wilt, of the Babe. He doesn't resell these pieces. He rarely shows them. So what exactly is it that he has?

History is filled with men who believed they mattered because they possessed something of someone notable. And Gitomer, certainly, is not without ego. Anyone can have a Babe Ruth autographed ball, he says, but he has a 1938 envelope on which the Babe wrote his name and address. Anyone can have autographs from the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, which he does, but who else has a team picture, with signatures, of the Soviets who lost?

But for him, collecting is more about remembering, about the successes he's admired. “It's about the link,” he says.

He got his first collectible in 1960, as a resident of Camp Pine Forest near Philly, the same summer camp that once happened to employ a kitchen helper named Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt came back that summer, and he signed a postcard for 14-year-old Jeffrey, who promptly mailed it home with his own words on the other side: “Dear Mom and Dad, I played ball with Wilt the Stilt today. Here's his autograph. Please save this card.”

He is a baseball fan most of all – his hometown Phillies, of course, but also the two teams that toppled the Yankees of his youth. They are the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, with Bill Mazeroski and Roberto Clemente, and the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, with Warren Spahn and Eddie Mathews and the young man who would be better than them all.

“Look at this,” Gitomer says, pointing to a framed picture of Henry Aaron and four Milwaukee teammates, sitting in a clubhouse with an elderly man, who is holding out a baseball bat. The other players are looking away, but Aaron is intent on the man with that bat. It is Ty Cobb, one of the game's greatest hitters.

“Could he be more intense?” Gitomer says of Aaron. “The guy is a student, an intense student.”

And that is his connection. Jeffrey Gitomer, THE world-class sales expert on sales, is a student, always trying to get better. Jeffrey Gitomer, THE best-seller and coveted corporate speaker, knows struggles. He dropped out of Temple University, sold mobile homes, hit financial bottom, endured an acrimonious divorce.

Certainly, his journey was nowhere near as difficult as Henry Aaron's, but Aaron reminds him how to do it gracefully.

“Here's a guy who can make it through anything and be a champion,” Gitomer says. “Not make it through anything and be a good guy – but be a good guy and a champion. He's my hero.”

And so, when Gitomer finally saw the Aaron letter on March 9, he knew it would be his.

The bidding quickly zoomed toward $20,000, too pricey for the Negro Leagues Museum. “We really wanted it,” Kendrick says, “but it just wasn't in our budget.” At the end, bids flew around the room – “very active, heavy bidding,” says Hunt – but Gitomer already had made his decision.

“You have people who bid for investment, and that's it,” Hunt says. “And you have people like Jeffrey, who collect for themselves and only show a few people. These people – they really do care about an item. They really do understand what it is.”

After the auction, Gary Caruso, a reporter for the Atlanta Braves magazine Choptalk, interviewed Gitomer about the purchase. The collector told Caruso his story – the 1957 Braves, Hank Aaron, big fan.

Caruso asked: Would Gitomer like to meet Aaron?

Yes, the collector said.

“Absolutely,” he says now.

He has thought about how that meeting would go. “No autographs,” he says. Just a thank you, a handshake and walk away.

What would he do if Aaron asked for the letter? A trade – the piece of Hank Aaron for the moment with Hank Aaron?

Gitomer shakes his head slowly. He has thought about this, too.

“I don't know,” he says.

An opening to hope

Let's get the suspense out of the way.

Jeffrey Gitomer has not met Hank Aaron.

Caruso, as promised, asked Aaron's assistant, who said the reclusive Aaron wouldn't be interested in meeting the man who owns the letter. Aaron declined to comment for this story.

Still – Jeffrey Gitomer could meet Hank Aaron. His spokesperson, Susan Bailey, has left the door just a bit ajar – maybe if Gitomer comes to a Braves game, and Aaron is at the same Braves game, and Aaron is not busy …

It's the kind of opening Gitomer could drive a truckload of motivational sales books through. Go back to the original – the Little Red Book. There it is, in the introduction: “Nothing happens until you do something to make it happen.” Or Chapter Six: “If you can't get in front of the real decision maker, you s***” Or on so many of the pages: Don't quit. Stick at it until you win. It's what he does, what he sells. It's who he is.

“No,” he says. He won't force a meeting with Aaron.

And: “If you force it, it's not the right thing.”

And: “Someday, it'll happen.”

He has decided, meanwhile, about something else he'd like to do. He wants to let the Negro Baseball Museum display a few of his pieces – including the Hank Aaron letter.

“Ohhh, yes,” says the museum's Bob Kendrick, laughing. “We'd definitely be interested in that.”

Gitomer hasn't decided how he would do it – a loan of some sort. It's also difficult to explain exactly why. Maybe it's that he understands a little more now about not getting what he wants. Maybe he's been thinking about this item, about what it means to him, and therefore might mean to others.

“People should get to see this,” he says, and he nods at the possibility. A nice display. “Dear Mr. Pollack …” From the collection of Jeffrey Gitomer. A piece of Henry Aaron, shared.

Critters can be cute-but may be rabid

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:53 EDT

Ten-year-old Summer Langston is being treated for rabies after a fox chased her and scratched her leg with its teeth two weeks ago as she played in her Clover, S.C., neighborhood.

In May, eight York County residents were treated for rabies after they handled, fed and allowed a pair of baby foxes they were caring for to lick their faces. One fox was later found to be rabid.

State health experts say such encounters with rabid animals are more common during the summer, when people spend more time outdoors.

And, as suburban areas like those in York County and elsewhere encroach on animal habitats, they say such encounters are increasingly likely.

So they're spreading the word about preventing rabies, a virus in mammals that attacks the nervous system, leading to swelling of the brain and death.

The virus is secreted in the saliva of an infected animal and is usually transmitted by a bite. But it can be transmitted when an infected animal's saliva comes in contact with an open cut on the skin or the eyes, nose and mouth, as happened in May.

Officials from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and York County Animal Control said they advise avoiding wild animals even if they appear to be sick, hurt or orphaned.

Wild animals normally avoid any human activity, said Mike Willis, spokesman for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

“If a wild animal is acting tame or allows a person to pet it, that is a red flag that the animal is sick,” Willis said. “What we have seen is that an animal such as a racoon will come out of the woods during the day and seem to be tame. People will pick it up and pet it, and it turns out to be rabid. The best thing is to stay clear of it.”

Willis said the agency has had an increase in reports of wild animals behaving suspiciously – such as acting friendly to people, or nocturnal animals being out during the day.

Even if a baby wild animal seems to have been orphaned, Willis and other officials advise leaving it alone.

“Orphaned wildlife should not be handled,” said Chris Peninger, director of the York County Animal Shelter.

Peninger said it is rare for wildlife to be orphaned, but if it appears they have been, they should be left alone for 24 hours to allow the parents to return. If the babies remain alone after 24 hours, Peninger said they should be reported to animal control.

The recent cases of rabies exposure in York County are among 13 people so far this year in the county who have had to undergo treatment for rabies prevention. Last year, seven people were treated in York County, the same number as in 2006. In South Carolina, an average of 400 people are treated for rabies each year, according to DHEC, a number that has held steady since 2002.

The fox that bit Summer was the fifth confirmed rabid animal found in York County this year, experts report. In 2007, 16 rabid animals were confirmed in the county, and there were 162 confirmed cases of rabid animals in South Carolina. So far this year, 50 rabid animals have been confirmed in South Carolina.

Stack of charges expected in Carson case

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 06:51 EDT

An expert in criminal law predicts District Attorney Jim Woodall will charge those accused of killing Eve Carson with “just about everything you could imagine” when the Orange County grand jury meets Monday.

Woodall is also scheduled to announce Monday whether he intends to seek the death penalty for Demario Atwater, one of the two accused, though he expects that hearing to be continued to a later date. Additional charges and new information released to the public in recent days could add up to aggravating factors that would support a death sentence.

N.C. Central law professor Irving Joyner said that based on information in search warrants and an autopsy report, he anticipates Woodall will charge both Atwater and alleged accomplice Laurence Lovette with kidnapping, burglary, robbery and two separate counts of murder.

The grand jury has already indicted Atwater and Lovett on charges of first-degree murder. Joyner expects additional felony murder charges because the death resulted from the commission of an inherently dangerous felony such as robbery.

He also said the killing appears premeditated and deliberate, which would validate the existing first-degree murder charges.

“The fact that you had two guns used to shoot her would be sufficient for jurors to conclude that they wanted to shoot her to kill her,” Joyner said. “I'm not trying to draw any conclusion as to their guilt.

“Those are the possible charges that I see based on what I've read. That's a pretty wide range of charges that they'll have to deal with,” Joyner said. “They could certainly proceed without all these charges, but I would think that they're going to stack them up and charge them with as many felonies as they could find.”

Tony Baker, professor of criminal law at Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University, disagrees.

“I would be shocked if they were to prosecute anything other than the most serious charge that they can use,” Baker said. “First-degree murder is plenty. … It's very expensive to run a trial. It's double expensive to run a capital trial.”

Baker said Woodall will face ample public pressure to pursue the death penalty, particularly in light of Carson's prominence as student body president at UNC Chapel Hill.

“It's a passion play,” he said. “We've seen the outpouring of affection for this remarkable young woman. … We've got a situation where it would be easy to assign a white hat and a black hat.”

Joyner thinks the “multiplicity of charges” could translate into aggravating factors that a judge or jury would consider when and if Woodall decides to pursue the death penalty for Atwater.

Lovette, 17, was not old enough at the time of the crime to face the death penalty.

“It's highly likely that this would be a capital case,” Joyner said.

The possibilities that Lovette and Atwater killed Carson during the commission of another felony and for financial gain and that the crime was especially heinous and atrocious could all serve as aggravating factors, Joyner said.

“I think that would be sufficient to inflame jurors,” he said.

Orange County has not sent anyone to death row since 1970, and no offender from Orange County has been executed since 1948.

“They've not come back with a death penalty verdict for 30 years,” Joyner said. “But if they do, this might be the case that would push 'em that way.”

Joyner said the multiple felonies and weapons, combined with Carson's stature on campus might be enough to lift Orange County's de facto moratorium on executions.

“The young lady herself would be a sympathetic person in the eyes of most jurors,” he said.