Charlotte.com: Local News

At this camp, he's right in the middle of things

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:44 EDT

An occasional series on summer camp scenes and moments around the southern Mecklenburg region. This installment is from a theater camp.

Did she, or didn't she?

Baxter Bradbury had to, um, go. But just outside the bathroom, he runs into a girl trying to sell him toilet paper – since there's none where he needs it.

Coincidence? Or a con artist in action?

This was one scene during a recent acting camp run by Children's Theatre of Charlotte. It was a week filled with learning lines, theater lingo and fake punches. It all culminates with a final performance on stage at Charlotte Preparatory School, site of the Children's Theatre's south Charlotte satellite.

Baxter is 10 and into comedy – “I like to do humorous stuff” – and wants to see where it takes him. He liked watching “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” before it was canceled.

This was Baxter's second tour at a summer theater camp since classes let out at Covenant Day School in Matthews, where he's a rising fifth-grader. His plans included attending a third camp, too, this one based on the Broadway smash “Wicked.”

Aside from occasional bouts of nerves, acting is fun, Baxter says. Next on his agenda: auditioning for a production.

“I would like to do one really soon. I haven't been in any play, and I would like to be in one.”

Charlotteboy, 14, fights offburglar

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:09 EDT

Danté Gardin told his mother he heard the burglars hit the window five times before it shattered Saturday morning. Upstairs, Danté, 14, reached under his bed and grabbed a pocketknife that he would soon need.

He locked the door of his room, backed into his closet and listened as the burglars moved around the house on Cindy Creek Lane near Beatties Ford Road and Interstate 85.

It was just after 8 a.m., and Danielle Gardin was out running errands with Danté's little brother. No car was in the driveway, which might have given the thieves the impression that the house, which also was targeted for a burglary seven months ago, was empty.

Instead, Danté was upstairs. His mother later said that he told her and the police he could hear them shimmying through the back window over the sink into the kitchen.

According to Danté, he listened for about 10 minutes. They disassembled his mother's computer and rooted through his brother's toys. Then they rattled his doorknob. When it wouldn't give, one burglar kicked the door in as Danté watched from the partially closed closet.

Danté, described by his mother as taller than 6 feet tall and solidly built, emerged from the closet with the knife and surprised the thief. The two exchanged heated words, and Danté took a swipe with the knife, cutting the man's stomach. As the thief jumped back, he dropped a gun. Danté picked it up, his mother said, and the would-be thieves took off with nothing stolen.

Danté called the police, who spotted the green van the thieves fled in. The burglars jumped from the van, evaded the encircling police and hadn't been caught by late Saturday.

Meanwhile, Danté was at home, on the phone with his mother.

“He was frantic, and at first I couldn't understand him,” Danielle Gardin said. “He said, ‘Mama, you need to come home. You got to come home right now.'”

The Gardins moved into the house in January, and less than a month later, neighbors told them that three men tried to break through the back door. The neighbors called the police, and the would-be thieves ran as officers drew near.

Danielle Gardin says she was scared then. But the family stayed, she said, because she doesn't want anyone to run her away from her home.

Group pushes for education, restriction on use of Tasers

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:09 EDT

An N.C. advocacy group pushing for more education and restrictions on the use of Taser stun guns is contacting police departments across the state to share a study on the device's risks.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg department, which is reviewing its Taser policy after the death of a 17-year-old stunned by an officer, is one of the departments contacted by the Taser Safety Project. The group's officials say they're especially worried about CMPD's use of Tasers on minors.

The project released a study in April that reviewed use of the devices by N.C. sheriff's offices and found that improper use of Tasers contributed to 11 deaths in the previous four years. The project was a coalition of the N.C. Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Arc of North Carolina, the NAACP and others.

“No one in the coalition is trying to ban the use of Tasers by law enforcement. It's better than a bullet,” said Jennifer Rudinger, the executive director of the ACLU's N.C. office in Raleigh. “But there's definitely a feeling that there needs to be more awareness of the risks Tasers pose and better training to educate law enforcement about those risks. It needs to be more of a last resort than what it currently is.”

On Wednesday, CMPD announced that it had suspended Officer Jerry Dawson Jr. for five days without pay for violating department policy when he used a Taser on 17-year-old Darryl Turner.

Dawson shocked Turner for 37 seconds during a confrontation at a north Charlotte grocery store on March 20. Turner, a store employee, died of cardiac arrest. An autopsy showed his heart was pumping so fast and chaotically from the stress of the confrontation and Taser shot that it stopped pumping blood properly.

It was the first Taser-related death in department history and the 13th in the Carolinas this decade; Turner was the youngest of the 13. The next-youngest who died was 28.

A police department review concluded that Dawson should not have shocked Turner for as long as he did. The department teaches officers to pull and immediately release the Taser trigger to deliver a five-second shock, although officers may repeatedly pull the trigger in extreme circumstances when necessary to control a suspect. Holding down the trigger violates department policy.

The Taser Safety Project surveyed only sheriff's offices, not police departments. It found that sheriff's offices in 70 of the state's 100 counties issue Tasers to some or all of its deputies, but that many agencies lack clear policies about when and how they should be used.

Since last year, when the coalition began contacting sheriff's offices, 15 have adopted new policies on Taser safety, though not CMPD, Rudinger said. Seven have adopted prohibitions or restrictions of the use of the devices on minors, she said.

The coalition is trying to decide how many police departments statewide to contact. It has sent copies of its study, “Not There Yet: The Need for Safer Taser Policies in North Carolina,” to the state's 25 largest police departments, including CMPD.

The coalition worries especially about the effects of Tasers on minors, the elderly and the disabled, who might not be able to withstand even the typical five-second shock, Rudinger said.

Tasers typically use compressed nitrogen to shoot two tethered, needlelike probes into skin, delivering a debilitating but temporary electric shock. CMPD has used the devices since 2004, and law enforcement agencies nationwide have praised them as less lethal alternatives to firearms.

But critics say their effects haven't been studied enough: Amnesty International, the worldwide human-rights organization, says at least 290 people have died after shocks from U.S. law enforcement Tasers since mid-2001, when it began tracking Taser-related injuries and deaths.

Fire departments find ways to cope with energy costs

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:09 EDT

In January, it cost about $400 to fuel the trucks at the Robinson Volunteer Fire Department in northeast Mecklenburg County.

By June, the monthly bill had risen to nearly $1,000.

“We were going to have to cut somewhere,” recalled Chief Robbie Honeycutt.

Honeycutt said the department started using smaller trucks on some calls to stretch money for fuel. Some station maintenance, such as painting, has also been delayed. If things get worse, Honeycutt said the department could take money out of the training budget to pay for fuel.

Across the country, many small fire departments are struggling to keep up with diesel fuel costs that have gone up more than 60 percent in the past year. The problem grew more noticeable in the past month or two, said some local firefighters.

The rising fuel costs are particularly hard for cash-strapped volunteer fire departments, who often rely on fundraisers to help cover their expenses. “A lot of these (departments) are already struggling financially,” said David Finger, the vice president for government affairs for the National Volunteer Fire Council in Washington. “This is just heaped on top of it.”

In the Charlotte area, a gallon of diesel fuel averaged $4.80 earlier this week, compared with around $4.75 a month ago, according to AAA. Diesel cost around $2.90 per gallon this time last year.

In trying to cut costs, the heads of local fire agencies stress they won't do anything to compromise public safety. Rather, they say, they're making more subtle changes, including using pickup trucks for medical calls or to run errands.

The smaller trucks often hold the same medical equipment and are more fuel efficient, getting at least twice as many miles per gallon as the large engines.

In Gaston County, Cherryville Fire Chief Jeff Cash said his department will only use the smaller trucks if there are enough firefighters back at the station to respond to a fire. The department also has asked firefighters to not let the engines idle when unnecessary and to bring meals from home instead of using the large trucks to get lunch or dinner.

He said hopes these and other changes will trim about 5 percent from fuel costs. The city-funded department also got an 11 percent boost to its fuel budget this year.

At the Providence Volunteer Fire Department, Deputy Chief Dave Banick said the department has not made any changes to how firefighters respond to calls. But he said worries are setting in.

“Eventually it could become a big problem for us and a lot of other departments,” said Banick, whose station serves portions of Union and Mecklenburg counties. “A lot of us are on a fixed income, so eventually it's going to start hurting a lot.”

Help could come from the federal government.

Bills have been introduced recently in Congress to help volunteer departments cope with fuel costs. Rep. Robin Hayes, a Republican from Concord, has proposed increasing the mileage-rate tax deduction for firefighters responding to emergencies from 14 cents a mile to 44.5 cents.

Another plan would reimburse volunteer fire departments up to 75 percent of the difference between current fuel prices and those last December. That could cost about $50 million a year.

“What is the cost of not doing it?” said Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania who co-sponsored the proposal. “I don't want some rural family on some rural road experiencing a fire and a vehicle running out of gas and someone dying.” McClatchy Newspapers Washington correspondent Barbara Barrett contributed.

In January, it cost about $400 to fuel the trucks at the Robinson Volunteer Fire Department in northeast Mecklenburg County.

By June, the monthly bill had risen to nearly $1,000.

“We were going to have to cut somewhere,” recalled Chief Robbie Honeycutt.

In the Charlotte area, a gallon of diesel fuel averaged $4.80 earlier this week, compared with around $4.75 a month ago, according to AAA. Diesel cost around $2.90 per gallon this time last year.

The smaller trucks often hold the same medical equipment and are more fuel efficient, getting at least twice as many miles per gallon as the large engines.

He said hopes these and other changes will trim about 5 percent from fuel costs. The city-funded department also got an 11 percent boost to its fuel budget this year.

At the Providence Volunteer Fire Department, Deputy Chief Dave Banick said the department has not made any changes to how firefighters respond to calls. But he said worries are setting in.

Help could come from the federal government.

Another plan would reimburse volunteer fire departments up to 75 percent of the difference between current fuel prices and those last December. That could cost about $50 million a year.

Slaying rumors hard with folks buying in

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:09 EDT

At first I didn't pay much attention to the e-mails, but then there were too many to ignore. Here's a piece of one:

According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal … the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power will destroy everything. Is it OBAMA??

It had been passed along through who knows how many e-mails until it got to a reader who sent it to me, begging me to check it out. Snopes.com – the site that investigates urban legends and e-mail rumors – had already done the legwork. It turns out that the Book of Revelation (no “s”) doesn't say a word about “a man in his 40s,” and in fact doesn't mention Muslims at all, which makes sense because Islam didn't originate until 400 years after Revelation was written.

Not to mention – and Lord, would it be nice not to have to mention it – that Barack Obama is not a Muslim.

This all came to mind after the New Yorker magazine published its recent Obama cover.

If you haven't seen it, it's a cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama celebrating their victory with a fist bump in the White House – only Barack is wearing a robe and turban, and Michelle is in combat gear, and a photo of Osama bin Laden hangs over the fireplace, where an American flag is burning.

This is meant as a joke. The idea is to make fun of all the silly rumors, to mock the politics of fear, to bring all the squirming hateful falsehoods out into the light so they'll crumble into dust like vampires.

Problem is, some vampires won't die.

Every four years I get a little more depressed about the future of politics. In 2000, John McCain's campaign against George W. Bush vaporized in South Carolina, where the rumor spread that McCain had fathered a black baby out of wedlock. The truth was that McCain and his wife had adopted a baby from Bangladesh. But the rumor was enough, and McCain lost South Carolina.

In 2004, John Kerry's campaign withered at the hands of the Swift Boaters, who managed to get across the message that the candidate who didn't fight in Vietnam was more patriotic than the candidate who did.

And now the word slithering around the back channels is that Obama is at best a secret Muslim and at worst the end of the world.

Let's be blunt here. This stuff works. Rumors work. Lies work.

They work for the same reasons that people actually send checks to the Nigerian guy who promises you a million bucks if you provide your bank account number. Some people don't know any better, and some people want to believe.

This isn't about class or level of education. I know people who send me these e-mails. They have degrees and good jobs. But they've had so much crap flung at them for so long that they don't know what truth smells like.

A joke that everybody understands is probably not all that funny. The New Yorker was well within the bounds of free speech. But I wish we had some sort of celestial poll that showed how many people got the point of the joke, and how many people took away just the opposite.

I'm expecting an e-mail any day now that links to the cartoon and adds a caption: PROOF!

Cristobal 1st tropical storm to hit coast

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:09 EDT

Camera-toting vacationers in North Myrtle Beach hoped for a lightning show as Tropical Storm Cristobal rumbled offshore. On North Carolina's Outer Banks, surfers reveled in choppy waves and fishermen reeled in last catches of wahoo and sailfish as heavy gray clouds billowed up from the south.

Cristobal, the first tropical storm to menace the Southeast seaboard this hurricane season, sent outer bands of intermittent rain lashing the eastern Carolinas late Saturday as forecasters predicted it could dump several inches in some areas of drought-stricken North Carolina.

The storm is forecast to have no effect on weather today in the Charlotte metro region, although a few showers from the system spread inland Saturday to Union and Anson counties.

At 8p.m. Saturday, the center of the storm was about 130 miles east of Charleston and about 185miles southwest of Cape Hatteras. The National Hurricane Center said Cristobal was moving northeast at about 6 mph with maximum sustained winds of about 45 mph and some higher gusts. Some strengthening was forecast overnight, but Cristobal is not expected to reach hurricane strength.

Forecasters say they expect Cristobal's center to remain off the Carolinas coast, which would keep the strongest winds and heaviest rain – which usually are contained in the eastern part of tropical systems – offshore.

But tropical storms warnings remain in effect from near Charleston northward to the N.C.-Virginia line, including Pamlico Sound.

The storm's biggest impact Saturday was felt in the Wilmington area and in Brunswick County, home to some of the Carolinas' most popular beach resorts – Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle and Holden Beach. Wilmington received 21/2 inches of rain Saturday, said Stephen Keebler, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service there. Rainfall of 2 to 4 inches is predicted today farther up the coast, especially on the Outer Banks.

Cristobal's winds were not expected to be a problem, Keebler said. “It's some rain and a little bit of relief for the coastal areas and a lot of excitement, but that's about it,” he said.

The rain bands were weakening as they spun farther inland, providing little relief for parched areas near Interstate 95 in North Carolina, he said.

“Basically the track is running parallel to the coast,” said National Hurricane Center lead forecaster Martin Nelson. “Slow strengthening is forecast for the next day or two.”

At the By The Sea Motel in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., out-of-state visitors photographed outer storm bands as Cristobal churned off the coast, said hotel manager Charlie Peterson. Intermittent light rain fell in the afternoon but that wasn't enough to chase them away.

“They've got their cameras set and they think there is going to be lightning over the water,” he said. Observer staff writer Steve Lyttle and Associated Press Writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia contributed.

Longer trucks could bring bigger worries with them

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:08 EDT

Longer trucks will soon be seen on N.C. 75 between Waxhaw and Mineral Springs – and they might also travel most state roads.

That's not setting well with some town officials.

Waxhaw Mayor Daune Gardner worries about the safety of pedestrians, the road's sharp curves and even the effect on downtown Waxhaw's historic buildings.

“Trucks of any size coming through downtown, especially at midnight, come barreling through,” said Gardner. “It shakes the buildings. These are 100 years old.”

The N.C. Department of Transportation has approved a shipping company's request to run 53-foot tractor trailers on N.C. 75 from the S.C. line to the Parkdale Mills textile plant on Mineral Springs' eastern edge. Previously, only 48-foot trucks could legally drive that route.

Also, state lawmakers last week ratified a bill that would allow the longer trailers on primary highways. The measure awaits Gov. Mike Easley's signature. It would allow the longer trucks on most roads in Union County, said Kevin Lacy, state traffic engineer with the N.C. Department of Transportation.

DOT could prohibit such trucks on portions of roads that can't handle longer trucks safely.

The N.C. Trucking Association says 53-footers are becoming the industry standard and would mean fewer trucks on the road.

But the State Highway Patrol is concerned the longer trucks could pose a hazard on some narrow, winding roads, such as in the mountains of Western North Carolina, agency spokesman Lt. Everett Clendenin said.

In Union County, the prospect of longer trucks on more roads has caused some municipalities to balk, at least at the request earlier this year by Trailer Bridge Inc. The access request would allow 53-foot trucks from Trailer Bridge and other companies to run the N.C. 75 route, as long as their destination was Parkdale Mills, Lacy said.

Waxhaw commissioners opposed the Jacksonville, Fla., company's request. Monroe also opposed an earlier version from the company, which would have allowed the trucks through downtown Monroe to Parkdale Mills. The company withdrew that request in January and submitted one for trucks from South Carolina through Waxhaw.

Mineral Springs did not object. N.C. 75 is relatively straight and flat through the small town, which has just one traffic signal.

“The engineer who investigated (the request) did not see a compelling reason from a safety or operational standpoint” to reject it, Lacy said. Comments from the public mainly concerned heavier trucks. But Trailer Bridge's request dealt with length, not weight, said Lacy, who gave the company the go-ahead.

Representatives of Trailer Bridge did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The (Raleigh) News & Observer contributed.

DeMint: Defeatwon't halt plans

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:08 EDT

A defiant S.C. Sen. Jim DeMint said last week that his failure to reduce the cost of President Bush's $48billion global AIDS program won't deter him from continuing to compel lawmakers to take tough votes on government spending.

DeMint responded after the Senate overwhelmingly approved a significant expansion of the AIDS initiative Bush launched in 2003 to stem the disease's spread in Africa.

“Folks in South Carolina want accountability in Washington, and I'm not going to be shy to pull back the curtain on Congress' misplaced priorities and deficit spending,” DeMint said. “Before we forced a debate, few Americans knew our tax dollars are being funneled to a Chinese organization that promotes forced abortions and sterilizations. That's an outrage that everyone should know about, but the bill's supporters wanted to keep it quiet.”

Before voting 80-16 to pass the AIDS bill, the Senate defeated DeMint's amendments to cut its cost to $35billion over five years and to prohibit funds from being used for alleged “coercive abortion and forced sterilization” in China or other countries.

About $10billion in the AIDS measure would go to the U.N. Global Fund, which the international organization established to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The fund has given at least $70million to a Chinese state-run agency that requires women to be sterilized or have abortions to limit population growth, DeMint aides said.

DeMint's spokesman, Wesley Denton, noted that the five top Senate Republican leaders had backed his cost-cutting measure, which was defeated by a 64-31 vote.

House Foreign Relations Committee aides signaled Thursday that the full House would pass the reconciled House-Senate bill soon and send it to Bush to sign into law.

In emotional debate on the Senate floor Wednesday, DeMint pleaded with his peers to apply fiscal restraint.

“What we're doing here this week I consider obscene completely unacceptable,” DeMint said. “We're talking about creating the largest foreign-aid program in the history of our country, with no thought.”

He's responsible for ecological feat

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 22:58 EDT

Dr. Jayant Baliga is a man of average size, but he probably has the world's smallest footprint. Carbon footprint, that is.

Baliga, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at N.C. State, is the inventor of a power-saving switch that prevents 1.4 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere each year, at a cost savings of $300 billion.

And by saving 125 gigawatts of power each year, Baliga has offset the carbon footprint of 175 million people. You'd have to plant tens of millions of trees to achieve the same effect.

Now he may make big changes in the nation's electrical grid. He's a finalist for a National Science Foundation grant that would support research into how to deliver energy more efficiently.

Meanwhile, consumers already use Baliga's technology every time they turn on a television, power up a computer or switch on the air conditioning.

Baliga's chief invention, called an insulated gate bipolar transistor, is an improvement to the original transistors developed at Bell Laboratories in the 1940s.

As the building blocks of all modern electronics, transistors are arguably the most important invention of the 20th century. The devices amplify and switch electrical signals, and their low cost and ease of production means that millions of them can be lined up on a single microchip. But before Baliga, they were very energy inefficient.

Baliga likens the concept to a hose: “If you think of a garden hose, you have water running through the spigot and into the hose at full speed. But if you want to control that flow, you must use a damper somewhere inside the hose to decrease the water coming out. A lot of energy is lost at the damper.”

But if you could decrease the flow of the water at the spigot you'd save a tremendous amount of power, Baliga says.

And that's precisely what the IGBT does. Baliga made the breakthrough while working at General Electric.

Civil War battleground in Charleston is protected

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:44 EDT

Morris Island, made famous by the charge of the black 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and once considered one of the nation's most endangered Civil War battlegrounds, has been protected from development.

The City of Charleston, working with the Trust for Public Land, purchased the property last month from developer Bobby Ginn in a $3million deal. Now the city is working with the public on how to interpret and provide public access to the 800-acre island on Charleston Harbor.

The purchase capped an effort to protect the island which, in 2005, was named one of the nation's most-endangered battlefields by the Civil War Battlefield Trust.

Confederate Battery Wagner, where the Massachusetts troops died in a charge dramatized in the movie “Glory,” has been lost to the sea.

York coroner arrested while on probation

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:14 EDT

York County, S.C., Coroner Doug McKown was arrested in North Carolina this week after drinking beer while driving a county vehicle and traveling with a man suspected of smoking crack cocaine, authorities said.

McKown, 39, was charged with violating his probation Friday afternoon and booked at the York County Detention Center. He denied the charges.

His arrest comes less than two months after he was acquitted of felony cocaine charges in York County. After the acquittal, McKown returned to the elected coroner post Gov. Mark Sanford suspended him from in 2006.

McKown's probation is related to his conviction for unlawfully possessing a prescription drug – half a Viagra pill that police found in his home – a misdemeanor charge.

His latest arrest stems from a Thursday night incident in Lincoln County, according to the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.

McKown was driving his county-issued white Chevy Blazer around 9 p.m. Thursday with 43-year-old Eric Howell of Gastonia when a deputy pulled the SUV over, according to a Lincoln County Sheriff's Office report.

The deputy had noticed the vehicle in the parking lot of a convenience store, where he spotted Howell using a beverage can to smoke, the report stated. The deputy recognized the technique as one used to smoke crack or methamphetamine. As the deputy was getting out of his patrol car, Howell saw him, put the can down and said something to McKown, the report stated.

McKown backed out of his parking space and drove away. As the deputy pulled McKown over, he saw a can being tossed out of the passenger's window, the report stated. McKown told the deputy he went into the convenience store to buy gum, and, when he got back to the vehicle, Howell told him that they needed to leave because the police were there, the report stated.

But the deputy said he had seen both of them in the vehicle while Howell was smoking. When the deputy asked Howell what he was smoking, Howell told him he was using crack, the report stated.

The deputy said he smelled alcohol on McKown's breath and asked if he had been drinking. McKown told him he had two beers, the report stated. McKown performed a sobriety test, but it was inconclusive, and he refused to take a breath test, according to the report. Authorities found three open bottles of beer in the vehicle.

McKown and Howell were arrested and taken to the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office.

McKown was cited for drinking while driving and an open container violation but was not jailed. Howell was charged with an open container violation, littering and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was taken to jail and released on a $500 bond.

The discarded can was recovered but had not been tested Friday.

The county's Blazer was impounded.

Howell denies smoking crack and said he didn't tell police he had.

“They asked that question and my comment was like, ‘Yeah, right,'” Howell said. “I would submit to a drug test. … I don't use drugs.”

McKown said he wasn't drinking that night. When he picked up Howell, he said his friend had a 12-pack of beer. He said he didn't know Howell was drinking in the vehicle until the deputy stopped him.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services said McKown violated his probation by lying to an agent and supervisor about his N.C. arrest, not immediately notifying an agent of his arrest and leaving the state without permission, among other offenses. If a judge determines McKown violated his probation, he could serve a year in prison.

Get ready to walk a little farther to nearest Starbucks

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:28 EDT

The sandwich board-style sign outside the Starbucks Coffee on Wilkinson Boulevard in Charlotte read “Now Open” Friday. Inside, employees joked that another phrase would work better: “Open for now.”

Two years after debuting amid fanfare, the westside's only Starbucks – plus four others in Charlotte, and one in Hickory – learned Thursday it's among the 600 stores nationwide the Seattle-based coffee purveyor plans to close by early 2009, due largely to a slumping economy and market oversaturation. After the closures, Charlotte will have about 25 Starbucks stores.

As an icon that brought coffeehouse chic, baristas and $3 lattes to the masses, Starbucks has grown to more than 11,000 locations across the country.

“Truthfully, I just think Starbucks expanded a little too rapidly in the Charlotte market,” said Will Whitley, a retail broker and developer with New South Properties of the Carolinas. “Starbucks is all about convenience, and these are not convenient locations.”

The java giant has long been unafraid to open new stores near existing ones. That sentiment was captured in 1998 by the satirical newspaper The Onion, which wrote an article titled “New Starbucks Opens In Rest Room Of Existing Starbucks.” But recently, the boom intensified: The company has doubled its number of stores in the past four years, and some analysts wondered whether it would cannibalize its own business.

The closings seem to confirm that fear. Nationwide, 70 percent of the stores to be shut are less than three years old. In the Charlotte market, all of the stores set to close have been open about two years or less, and four are within walking distance of other Starbucks stores. The location at Sharon Amity and Providence roads in the Cotswold area has been open only eight months.

The local stores, along with the others set to close, have been on an internal watch list for some time, Starbucks said. They were not profitable and weren't expected to make money in the foreseeable future, the company said, declining to provide further details.

An urban jolt

Although the loss of a Starbucks could jolt any caffeine fiend, it's more significant in urban, minority-heavy neighborhoods such as that around the Wilkinson store.

“It's a place most people would not expect a Starbucks to go, especially because of the population makeup and the income,” said Charlotte City Council member Warren Turner, who worked to bring the store to the area as part of a redevelopment effort. “We thought it was a great opportunity, and (the closure) is disappointing.”

Unlike other local Starbucks stores, that one is a partnership between Starbucks and NBA legend Magic Johnson's Johnson Development Corp., which works to bring top chains to traditionally underserved neighborhoods. Johnson himself came to town when the store opened, in a plaza with a new Wal-Mart Supercenter and other small businesses. “This community deserves to have a Starbucks here and a chance to say whether they want to come inside or not,” he said then.

Aside from two subtle portraits of Johnson and a special sign reading “Every community deserves a welcoming place to enjoy great coffee,” the store looks like any other Starbucks on the inside: Sleek, modern, decorated in earth tones, with hip-but-not-too-edgy music playing (Friday's soundtrack: Ella Fitzgerald).

Across the street, though, it has neighbors you won't find in, say, SouthPark: A CMS bus lot, a strip club and an adult bookstore.

Friday, the store drew a fairly regular and diverse crowd of customers: customers paying bills at the Duke Energy office next door, workers from nearby shops, two men in army fatigues, people on their way uptown and to the airport.

“They serve my favorite beverages, and I would like to have them as close as possible,” said Latowa Simpson, 29, who enjoys caramel macchiatos and frappuccinos, though she cut back on her Starbucks habit in the last month because of the economy. “I'm gonna miss it a lot. It'll take a lot from the area.”

“I don't think something they just built should go away,” said Natasha Tate, 18. “People gotta get used to coming to it.”

Councilman Turner, while not a coffee drinker – “I do the green tea thing,” he said – said he also wishes Starbucks had given the store more of a chance. “It hurts twice as bad as closing a site somewhere else in the city where there's twice as many (Starbucks),” he said. “It was part of our revitalization.”

But Keisha Williams, 29, who lives nearby, said she's skeptical the store's departure means that much for the area. She likes coffee, but Starbucks' prices – which can approach $5 a drink for larger sizes – are “just too high.”

“I'm glad they're trying to change the westside,” she said, “but they need a lot more than a Starbucks.”

McCrory, Hagan pushing for debates

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:56 EDT

Let the debate over debates begin.

Republican Pat McCrory wants on stage with Democrat Bev Perdue in their race for governor. And Democrat Kay Hagan wants a public shot at Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Neither is feeling the love.

Perdue has agreed to some appearances with McCrory, but she turned down a chance to debate him at the annual convention of the N.C. Association of Broadcasters this weekend in Asheville. She dismissed McCrory as “just whining” when he complained about that.

Hagan is left even more lonely. The broadcasters association invited Dole and Hagan to debate. Hagan accepted, but Dole did not. So who gets to speak to the broadcasters? Dole, as an incumbent senator, while Hagan was left out.

We get why Dole wouldn't want to give the underdog Hagan a spotlight. But in a tight race, can Perdue afford to skip the publicity?

-- Taylor Batten

Here's one ticket nobody will be scalping

Either Rep. Cary Allred is out of touch, or the Charlotte Bobcats need a better marketing plan.

Allred, an Alamance County Republican, rose on the N.C. House floor Thursday to debate the legalization of ticket reselling. He began with a personal note.

“I don't go to rock concerts or to the Charlotte Hornets basketball games or anything like that,” he said.

With good reason. The NBA's Hornets left Charlotte for New Orleans in 2002. The Bobcats replaced them in 2004.

-- David Ingram

She got the criticism, but not the paycheck

Making $57,562 a year for doing nothing would be a sweet deal – but it's not what state Rep. Tricia Cotham is getting.

Cotham was an assistant principal at East Mecklenburg High when she was appointed to disgraced House Speaker Jim Black's seat in March 2007. She went on unpaid leave and headed to Raleigh shortly afterward.

But when the Observer filed a public records request for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools payroll this March, Cotham was still listed at full time and full salary. That's because she's technically on the payroll; when she returns, she'll still be an assistant principal earning that salary. Until then, she's getting no paycheck and no benefits.

Once the Observer posted the salaries online, bloggers and Cotham critics began to buzz about whether she was pulling a fast one on Mecklenburg taxpayers. Cotham repeatedly asked CMS to set the record straight, but the word didn't reach Chief Communications Officer Nora Carr – who had agreed to check out concerns about errors in salary listings – or the Observer folks who oversee the database.

Last week, while Carr was on vacation, Cotham's increasingly desperate pleas reached Superintendent Peter Gorman. After a misguided first response – “I believe that it is a Charlotte Observer database and not ours” – he set the record straight. The Observer's online listing now includes her salary but gives her status as “unpaid leave.”

At least there's one plus for Cotham. When she first checked her status on Charlotte.com to see what the fuss was about, she learned she had gotten a cost-of-living raise – collectible only when she returns to work.

-- Ann Doss Helms

Do you know which party is in power in Raleigh?

Charlotte residents aren't paying attention to state government, according to a new poll out this week.

Pollsters asked N.C. voters which party holds power in the N.C. House, the N.C. Senate and the governor's mansion.

Fewer than half of the 600 respondents correctly identified Democrats as the majority party in the House. Only 40 percent knew Democrats were in charge of the Senate.

Voters in the Triangle were more likely to pick correctly. Charlotte area voters were the least likely to get it right.

-- Staff reports

Union man gets life in 3 killings

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:04 EDT

In a plea bargain with prosecutors Friday, serial killer Scott Wilson Williams was sentenced to life without parole in the shootings and dismemberment of three Charlotte-area women between 1997 and 2006.

Williams entered an Alford plea in Union County Superior Court. That means he acknowledged prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him of three counts of first-degree murder in the three women's deaths.

Union County prosecutors earlier sought the death penalty against the former state road crew worker from northern Union County.

But District Attorney John Snyder said Friday he offered the plea deal “in light of the nature of the case, the sensitivity of the victims and the uncertainty of capital punishment.”

The evidence against Williams included DNA and ballistics from weapons found on his property, detectives said. Investigators also read statements by Williams and two more victims who survived, which show the 44-year-old picking up women, torturing and killing them.

They also portrayed Williams as a fetishist and predator who was insecure in his sexuality and quick to anger.

Williams' attorney, Frank Wells of Asheboro, said the defense “did not have any grounds on which to dispute the statements” read in court.

“It wasn't a close call,” Wells said. “The evidence was overwhelming.”

Superior Court Judge Richard Boner handed Williams three consecutive life sentences. They involved the deaths of Sharon House Pressley in 1997, Christina Outz Parker in 2004 and Sharon Tucker Stone in 2006. Their bodies – mutilated in similar but increasingly gruesome ways – were found off rural roads in Union County and Chesterfield County, S.C.

Williams also entered Alford pleas to first-degree charges of kidnapping, rape and sexual offense against two more women in 1995 and 2000. Williams let both women go.

The serial murder case has been one of the most gruesome in the Charlotte area in recent years. But its resolution Friday was low key. Only about a third of seats in a Union County courtroom were filled. Attending were fewer than two dozen family and friends of the victims and Williams.

Williams walked in a side entrance, tieless and wearing a gray suit. Shackled at the wrists, he answered Judge Boner's questions softly, saying “Yes” and “No” and showing no emotion.

His buzzed hair had grayed since his arrest in March 2006. He sported the same thick, dark mustache and a pair of wire-frame glasses.

As investigators read evidence against him, the courtroom was quiet.

According to Union County Sheriff's Lt. David Linto, one survivor told investigators that Williams removed her shoelaces, wrapped them around her breasts and tightened them until her breasts turned blue.

“He said, ‘I was once your worst nightmare; now I'm your guardian angel. If anyone (messes) with you, I will kill them,'” the woman told detectives.

According to testimony, Williams also told investigators that he planned to cannibalize one woman's remains, but was turned off by the smell of cooked flesh.

Union County Sheriff's Sgt. Brian Helms testified that when Williams was confronted by detectives at his home in northern Union County in early March 2006, he yielded.

“He was sitting on the couch. He shrugged, placed his head in his hands and said, ‘I didn't mean to hurt those girls,'” Helms told the court.

Near the two-hour hearing's end, family members of victims had a chance to speak.

“At first I was shocked about him not receiving the death penalty. But I guess God has a plan …” wrote Heather Brown, daughter of Sharon Stone, in a statement read to the court by her brother, Scott Hinson.

“My mom was always around smiling,” Brown wrote. “She called every holiday and for my birthday. She was not a woman of the streets. She worked as hard as she could at restaurants, until she met Scott Williams.”

As Hinson and other family of the victims entered statements into the court record, Williams' gaze tilted toward his shackled hands, and he rocked slightly in his chair.

He watched as the earliest known victim, a survivor, made her statement.

The woman, now in her 40s, held up a photograph of herself taken shortly before her 1995 abduction from the parking lot of a 24-hour supermarket and her subsequent rape. It showed a smiling woman with curly brown hair. She described herself as “very vivacious and full of life.” She has since married and has “a beautiful child.” But she spoke in a slow, soft monotone.

“At least I was lucky to survive,” she said. “But mentally and emotionally, I constantly look over my shoulder.”

Defense attorneys and prosecutors had discussed a plea arrangement for “a long time,” said Jonathan Megerian, Williams' co-counsel. But it wasn't until Thursday that Williams gave the final OK, Megerian said.

The court appointed Megerian and Wells, both of Asheboro, in January. Williams' previous attorneys withdrew citing a shortage of support staff and a strained relationship with their client.

Following Williams' arrest, Judge Boner sealed documents that contained many details of the case. Several media organizations, including the Observer, sought to obtain the documents after Williams' March 2006 arrest.

According to records that were made public, investigators seized assorted whips, chains, handcuffs, knives and handguns from Williams' home.

Scrutiny won't grow at poultry plants

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 07:55 EDT

The N.C. Department of Labor said Friday that it will not significantly change its inspections of North Carolina's poultry plants, despite four new positions that state lawmakers say they created to improve enforcement of safety laws.

Lawmakers provided $350,000 for the new positions but did not specify that they be used to protect poultry workers. They also largely ignored other proposals to improve worker safety, adjourning indefinitely Friday without acting.

The decisions by the Labor Department and by lawmakers mean the state will likely do little this year to improve conditions for poultry workers.

“We're going to continue doing business the way I imagine we've always done it,” said Dolores Quesenberry, spokeswoman for Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry. “We've been doing a good job with that all along, and we're going to continue that.”

Poultry workers across the Carolinas say those hurt on the job are routinely ignored, threatened or fired. Their complaints were included in a series of Observer stories beginning in February that questioned the effectiveness of state and federal oversight. The series found that some large plants had not been inspected in five years.

Dissatisfied with the enforcement of safety laws, Gov. Mike Easley has tried to empower officials other than the labor commissioner. Lawmakers argue that enforcement should remain a responsibility of the commissioner, who is elected independent of the governor.

Two weeks ago, lawmakers passed a budget plan that added four staff members to the Labor Department's Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The plan says the staff members will “evaluate workers and work force conditions affecting worker safety” – intended to be in the poultry industry, according to lawmakers who wrote the plan.

“The thinking was that it would help solve some of those problems in the poultry industry,” said Rep. Edith Warren, a Pitt County Democrat.

But the budget plan does not mention the poultry industry, and Quesenberry said the Labor Department will put the new staffers to work “across the board for all industries.”

Quesenberry defended the department's approach to poultry and other workplaces: develop partnerships with management rather than issue fines for safety violations.

“You can't just knock on the door, show up at a business and say, ‘I'm going to investigate,'” Quesenberry said. “You have to have a good reason to be there.”

Jackie Nowell, spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers in Washington, said N.C. government has a special obligation to workers because its system of enforcement is structured to include little federal oversight.

“They're saying to the federal government, ‘We want to do this ourselves. We think we can do a better program,'” Nowell said. “They should be even more vigilant, in my eyes.”

Told of the Labor Department's plans, Warren and Sen. David Weinstein said the plans are contrary to their intent. Still, they said they trust the labor commissioner to enforce safety laws correctly.

“The poultry and turkey industry is a very important industry. We want to keep it healthy,” said Weinstein, a Robeson County Democrat and co-chair of a Senate budget subcommittee.

Weinstein has three major poultry plants in his Senate district. He said he knows and respects Marvin Johnson, whose House of Raeford Farms was at the center of the Observer's series.

“I think management is trying to do the right thing,” Weinstein said. “Since the articles, I think they've decided to be good corporate citizens.”

The company has strongly contested the Observer's findings.

Bob Ford of the N.C. Poultry Federation, whose members include some of the largest poultry processors, said Friday that the industry opposes Easley's proposal to give the Division of Public Health the authority to inspect plants.

“We didn't see any real need to change the current system we're under…,” Ford said.

A series of Easley proposals didn't go far in the General Assembly. Easley, a Democrat, wanted to require large plants to hire or contract with licensed medical workers and to keep records of each time a worker complains about health concerns and how the company handled the complaint. The state health director would use information gathered during inspections to present N.C. officials with an annual summary of findings, as well as any recommendations for additional legislation, regulation or enforcement.

Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat, sponsored the legislation at Easley's request, but the bill never got out of a Senate committee. Clodfelter said Friday he did not know why but acknowledged he did not advocate for the bill.

Easley's chief policy adviser Alan Hirsch said that, at least in the short term, it will be the responsibility of Berry, a Republican, and the Labor Department to make the best use of the four new positions.