State
The Sanford Herald / Wednesday, October 6, 2010 / 7A
STATE BRIEFS Judge upholds plea deal in Apex teenager’s death
RALEIGH (AP) — A Wake County Superior Court judge has blocked prosecutors from yanking a plea deal they had struck with one of the people involved in an Apex teenager’s murder. Multiple media outlets reported that Judge Paul Ridgeway ordered Tuesday that the plea agreement with Aadil Khan should remain in place. Ridgeway ruled that prosecutors didn’t show Khan breached the terms of the agreement. Prosecutors say Khan was uncooperative and inconsistent in the statements he gave. He never testified in the trial of Ryan Patrick Hare, who was convicted of first-degree murder last month.
Accused killer of chief’s daughter returning to N.C.
Johnston County school denies nose ring appeal RALEIGH (AP) — Johnston County school officials have upheld the suspension of a 14-year-old student who says her nose piercing is an article of faith. The legal director of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says the school district made its decision Tuesday. Katy Parker says the ACLU is now weighing its legal options. The ACLU is representing Ariana Iacono, who has been suspended from Clayton High School since last month. Iacono and her mother belong to a religious group called the Church of Body Modification. The school says her nose stud violates the dress code, but the ACLU believes the Iaconos’ rights are being violated by the policy.
Court upholds dismissing claims in fatal chase
CHARLOTTE (AP) — The man accused of killing the daughter of Concord’s police chief is headed back to North Carolina after two weeks in a western New York jail. The Niagara County, N.Y., sheriff’s office said Tuesday that 34-year-old Michael Neal Harvey was picked up by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police spokesman did not immediately return a call to The Associated Press seeking comment. Harvey is charged with murder in the death of 23-year-old Valerie Hamilton, the daughter of Concord police chief Merl Hamilton. Harvey was held in New York after his arrest in Niagara Falls on Sept. 20, a day after Hamilton’s body was found stuffed in a storage locker.
RALEIGH (AP) — A state appeals court has upheld the dismissal of claims against the town of Franklinton and members of the police department by the parents of two sisters killed in a high-speed chase in 2007. The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday a Superior Court judge was right to throw out the case against the town, Officer Michael Dunlap and two supervisors. Eighteen-year-old Linsay Erin Lunsford and 9-year-old sister Maggie Rose died when a car being chased by Dunlap hit their car. Police were chasing Guy Christopher Ayscue, who was also killed. Chase speeds reached at least 90 mph.
Officials probe deaths of red wolves near coast
E-mail linked to House member responds to award
MANTEO (AP) — North Carolina wildlife officials are investigating the third death of an endangered red wolf in six months. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the body of a wolf was found Monday at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Dare County. In April, the bodies of two red wolves with radio collars were found in nearby Hyde County. The agency hasn’t said how the animal found Monday died, but it believes humans are responsible. The wildlife service is offering $2,500 for information leading to an arrest or other penalty. Red wolves are protected under the Endangered Species Act. The maximum punishment for killing a red wolf is a year in prison and a fine of $100,000.
RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina’s House Republican leader says he’s warned a fellow GOP lawmaker about sending an e-mail using disparaging terms for homosexuals. House Minority Leader Paul Stam said Tuesday that Rep. Larry Brown wrote an e-mail last week commenting on an award Democratic Speaker Joe Hackney is receiving from a gay rights organization. Stam forwarded the group’s release to dozens of Republicans. Brown’s e-mailed response included derogatory words used to characterize homosexuals. Stam said he wrote to Brown that he neither uses that language nor encourages it.
STATE BEGINS TO SURVEY THE DAMAGE FROM RAIN AND FLOODS Concerns range from lost homes to damage to farmers’ crops RALEIGH (AP) — Officials were assessing damage from rain and floods Tuesday in eastern North Carolina, even as some areas continued to face high water unlikely to recede before the weekend. Concerns ranged from lost homes and wrecked businesses to potentially harmful effects on farmers’ crops. With damage spread across 19 counties, the full scope won’t be known until the end of the week at the earliest. “After ’99, nobody thought it would happen again in their lifetime, and now 11 years later we’re reliving the same thing,� said Vanceboro Mayor Chad Braxton, referring to Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Waters in Vanceboro were still high, and Braxton said it will be about two days before the town knows for sure how many homes and busi-
nesses were damaged. But officials there know that roughly 26 homes, including 14 mobile homes from a park on the outskirts of town, are total losses already. The Red Cross was still operating shelters Tuesday in Washington, Windsor and New Bern, said regional director Lynwood Roberson, although he didn’t have a tally of overnight occupants. The area Red Cross has served 632 meals and more than 3,500 snacks to people displaced by the flooding, but say demand is beginning to drop off. “The waters are receding a little bit now, thank the good Lord,� Roberson said. The falling waters are allowing state and federal teams to begin estimating how much damage has been done since last week, when more than 20 inches of rain fell across most of the eastern part of the state. In some places, the water has barely receded, leaving residents still vulnerable to high water. State officials ex-
pect the Northeast Cape Fear River at Burgaw, the Neuse River at Kinston and the Lumber River at Lumberton to remain at flood stage until Friday or Saturday, said Julia Jarema, spokeswoman for the state Division of Emergency Management. “The river crested yesterday, but it’s only receded half a foot since then,� said Tommy Batson, a deputy fire marshal with the Pender County Department of Emergency Management in Burgaw. “There’s still a lot of stuff that’s just inundated.� State officials are also concerned about potential losses to farmers in the region, where some fields sat under a foot or more of water. “The weather from here on out will dictate how severe the damage is, how quickly the fields dry and how quickly the harvests (can be brought in),� said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler at a Council of State meeting. “It just proves that no matter how much technology we have and good production practices we
have, we’re always at the whim of the weather. And that’s what farmers have to deal with.� Troxler is particularly worried about damage to cotton, soybeans, sweet potatoes, peanuts and any tobacco still left in the fields. Gov. Beverly Perdue, who traveled to flooded areas over the weekend, said she expects the federal government will come through with money to help recovery efforts. “It’s just really bad all over the place,� she said. “Windsor is just sad.� Windsor, the Bertie County seat, saw some of the worst flooding in the state, with more than 200 homes and businesses damaged. As residents worked to clean up, though, many were trying to find some positive aspects to the disaster. “At least it didn’t stay around as long as Floyd,� said Beverly Bracy as she helped clean up Joe’s Service Center, a gas station owned by her father. “It came in fast and it went out fast.�
Group sends mailers on candidates RALEIGH (AP) — A conservative-leaning group has plunged into North Carolina’s General Assembly races, sending out mailers questioning the votes of two top Democrats that raised taxes last year. Civitas Action, which calls itself an education group, has sent out a pair of campaign mailers in recent days targeting Democratic House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate leader Marc Basnight, according to Francis DeLuca, president of its parent group, the John W. Pope Civitas Institute. DeLuca said Tuesday that the mailers by non-profit Civitas Action mark the first time the group has entered into direct voter education. He said the effort wasn’t coordinated with any candidates or a political party. The report shows Civitas Action has much more money at its disposal. The group has received nearly $265,000 since Aug. 2, more than
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70 percent of which came from Variety Stores Inc., the business owned by the family of Republican activist Art Pope. “I would plan on us doing other mailers,� DeLuca said. Campaign finance documents filed last week at the State Board of Elections showed Civitas Group only spent $5,750 on the mailers. DeLuca said several thousand mailers were sent to households in Basnight and Hackney’s districts. In one mailer, a picture of Basnight, D-Dare, is imposed in the middle of a fictional $1 billion dollar bill — a reference to the sales and income
tax increases — each expected to last two years — approved in the 2009 budget to help narrow a budget gap. “With unemployment at a 30-year high in North Carolina, why would billion-dollar Marc Basnight do that to us?� Basnight and other Democrats have said they needed to make tough choices with a 2009 budget gap of more than $4 billion that included spending cuts and additional revenues. The mailers are “a distortion because we had a balanced package,� said Hackney, D-Orange. “The cuts far exceeded the temporary tax increases.�
The group’s effort, first reported by The Insider, a newsletter that covers state government, is the latest effort by Pope to influence the legislative elections in a year when Republican hopes are high to take control of the House, Senate, or both. Pope’s Variety Stores gave $100,000 to Real Jobs NC, a group that has been targeting Democratic incumbents with critical mailers and television ads. The Civitas Institute, which focuses on state policy issues, received more than $1.6 million from a Pope family foundation in 2008, according to the institute’s IRS filing.
By Wayne Barber As a member of the ďŹ re service for 36 years, I have seen all too many times the devastation ďŹ re can incur on people and their homes. Watching a household endure the loss of their most valued possessions is simply heartbreaking. But there’s no greater horror than to witness a family suffer the aftermath of one or more loved ones who have perished in a ďŹ re. What’s most tragic about so many of these incidents, and I must admit sometimes frustrating, is that the fatal outcomes often could have been prevented with the presence of properly installed, working smoke alarms.
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Each year, nearly 3,000 people die in home ďŹ res; many of those deaths could be avoided with the proper smoke alarm protection. The nonproďŹ t National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) statistics show that while working smoke alarms cut the chance of dying in a ďŹ re nearly in half, roughly two-thirds of all home ďŹ re deaths result from ďŹ res in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.
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People have grown so accustomed to seeing smoke alarms in their homes that they feel adequately protected by them. The public’s complacency toward smoke alarms and ďŹ re safety in general must change. With a greater understanding and respect for ďŹ re’s potentially devastating impact, people can start taking the steps necessary to better protect themselves and their families.
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NFPA’s recommendations include a smoke alarm installed in all bedrooms, and at least one on every level of the home (including the basement), and outside all sleeping areas. It is also recommended that smoke alarms be interconnected, so that when one sounds, they all do. Most residents are not aware of the two types of smoke alarm technologies available – ionization and photoelectric. Ionization smoke alarms are generally more responsive to aming ďŹ res – like a pan ďŹ re or smoke from cooking. Photoelectric smoke alarms are generally more responsive to smoldering ďŹ res – like a cigarette, overheated wiring, or something hot like a space heater. Both types of smoke alarms should be installed in your home or combination ionization and photoelectric smoke alarms that take advantage of both technologies. Unfortunately, many homes in Sanford, and in communities throughout the U.S., still do not have this level of protection. As the ofďŹ cial sponsor of Fire Prevention Week, October 3-9, 2010, NFPA is promoting “Smoke Alarms: A Sound You Can Live With!â€? to better educate the public about recommendations for smoke alarms, and the steps they can take to best protect their homes and loved ones. The Sanford Fire Department is actively supporting this campaign through family-oriented events in Sanford during Fire Prevention Week. Sanford Fire Department is doing its part to educate residents about the importance of installing and maintaining smoke alarms appropriately. But the true safety lies with Sanford and their willingness to take the steps needed to protect their homes and families from ďŹ re. Our sincere hope is that everyone participates in one or more of these activities, and starts working toward a community from ďŹ re. (Wayne Barber is the chief of The Sanford Fire Department)
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