News Watch

A Quick Look at News Across the Region

Compiled by Sam Calhoun

Correction
In its November 26 issue, High Country Press reported that Cindy Long would be spinning on her wheel during Santa Paws this Saturday and Sunday, December 5 and 6. Long will be in attendance at Santa Paws, but she will be weaving on her loom, not spinning on her wheel.

The Watauga Humane Society has arranged for Santa Paws to visit the Little Red School House in Valle Crucis behind Mast General Store this Saturday and Sunday, December 5 and 6, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. A 5-by-7-inch photo costs $10, and additional photos are available for $5 each. All types of animals are invited to attend this holiday event with their owners. All dogs must be on a leash. For more information about this event, call Rachel Jolly at 828-266-3568.

October Unemployment Rates Increase in 74 of NC’s 100 Counties
Unemployment rates increased in 74 of North Carolina’s 100 counties in October—including Boone, which inched from 6.9 percent in September to 7 percent in October—according to statistics released this week by the state’s Employment Security Commission (ESC). Rates decreased in 19 counties and remained the same in seven.

“While some of the increases are seasonal, there is a continued effect throughout the state from this recession,” said ESC Chairman Moses Carey Jr. “Helping the jobless find work continues to be one of our major goals. We have seen some hiring over the past month, but we also know that layoffs continue to take place. Meanwhile, the ESC is aggressively working to finish the necessary programming of our computer system so that the new extension of claims can be filed and paid.”

North Carolina had 49 counties that were at or below the state’s unadjusted unemployment rate of 10.7 percent. Rates increased in six of the state’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas, decreased in two and remained the same in six.

Total county employment (not seasonally adjusted) increased in October by 6,882 workers, to 4,060,373. Not-seasonally-adjusted unemployment increased, by 11,539 workers. The unemployment total in October was 484,120 workers, compared with 472,581 in September.

Currituck County had the state’s lowest unemployment rate in October, at 6 percent. Meanwhile, Scotland County had the highest unemployment rate, at 17.2 percent.

In October, $186.3 million in benefits was paid to 196,561 individuals statewide, compared with $233.8 million to 204,303 individuals in September.
Unemployment rates in the metropolitan statistical areas for October were:

Asheville—8.6 percent, up from 8.4 percent in September
Boone—7 percent, up from 6.9 percent
Burlington—11.8 percent, no change
Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord NC-SC—12 percent, up from 11.8 percent
Durham-Chapel Hill—7.6 percent, down from 7.8 percent
Fayetteville—9 percent, no change
Goldsboro—8.8 percent, no change
Greensboro-High Point—11.3 percent, up from 11.1 percent
Greenville—10 percent, no change
Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton—14.5 percent, up from 14.1 percent
Jacksonville—8 percent, down from 8.3 percent
Raleigh-Cary—8.6 percent, no change
Rocky Mount—13.7 percent, up from 13.5 percent
Wilmington—9.8 percent, up from 9.7 percent
Winston-Salem—9.8 percent, no change

The state unemployment rate for November will be released on Friday, December 18. For more information, click to www.ncesc.com.

UPDATE: Affidavit Filed to Prevent Prisoner Release Without Parole
Gov. Bev Perdue on November 21 announced that the Department of Correction (DOC) is putting in place a plan to comply with the decisions of the appellate courts in the State v. Bowden case. The DOC has calculated unconditional release dates for the affected inmates. According to these calculations, the earliest unconditional release date is scheduled for 2054.

“I will continue to pursue all legal means of preventing the release of these inmates without any review by the parole board or any post-release supervision,” said Perdue. “I have asked Secretary Keller to review all records to ensure that the inmates are not awarded any credits for which they are not eligible.”

Pursuant to the court decision, the DOC has calculated unconditional release dates for those prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes committed between April 8, 1974, and June 30, 1978. For this group of offenders, records had previously shown release dates of “LIFE,” reflecting that no unconditional release was thought to be available to them. These sentences must now be treated as statutory life sentences of 80 years.

DOC Secretary Alvin Keller has directed that for each life sentence imposed for crimes during this time period, the unconditional release date shall be calculated as 80 years minus applicable jail credit earned while the prisoner awaited conviction and sentencing.

As has been the practice of the DOC for at least 50 years, Keller will continue awarding good behavior credits for prisoners with life sentences only for purposes of earning a more favorable custody grade, for becoming eligible for parole or when the governor commutes a prisoner’s sentence. Such credits will not be awarded for purposes of calculating an unconditional release date.

This has been the procedure of the DOC since at least 1955, during which time the head of the corrections agency has held statutory authority to establish rules and regulations as to grades of prisoners, rewards and privileges applicable to the classification of prisoners and allowances of time for good behavior.

The Fair Sentencing Act passed in 1981 excluded Class A and B felons from receiving good behavior credits for purposes of unconditional release from prison.

“I cannot see any meaningful difference between prisoners with statutory life sentences of 80 years and Class A and B felons under the Fair Sentencing Act in that their crimes are similarly heinous,” said Keller.

The DOC has filed an affidavit from Keller explaining this release date calculation in Cleveland Superior Court for the State v. Wilbur William Folston case. Similar affidavits will be filed in the Bowden case and others where judges have ordered release dates to be calculated for similarly situated inmates.

ASU Ranks Among Top Schools for Study Abroad Participation
ASU ranks second among the top 40 master’s degree granting institutions for the number of students participating in a short-term study abroad program in 2007-08. The data, released by the Institute of International Education’s annual Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, also lists ASU sixth among the top 40 master’s degree granting institutions in terms of the number of students participating in all study abroad programs.

In 2007-08, a total of 558 ASU students participated in a short-term study abroad program, studying in countries such as Costa Rica, France, Germany, China, South Africa, Ireland, Greece, New Zealand, Vietnam, Jamaica and Mexico.

“There were major shifts in 2007-08 in the geographical regions where our students studied for short term,” said Jesse Lutabingwa, associate vice chancellor in ASU’s Office of International Education and Development (OIED). “For the first time, the majority of Appalachian students did not study in Europe but in South and Central America and the Caribbean. Short-term enrollment numbers in Asia doubled.”

Lutabingwa credits the growing interest in ASU’s study abroad programs to the individual contribution and personal dedication of faculty who lead programs abroad and the staff in the OIED who work with them.

“During the 2006-07 academic year, we started encouraging new faculty members to lead programs abroad and provided small financial support to help them learn how to develop and lead programs abroad,” Lutabingwa said. “Our investment in these efforts seems to have paid off.”

Forty-two percent of students studying abroad in 2007-08 participated in programs located in South and Central America and the Caribbean, compared to 31 percent the previous year. Europe was second with 36 percent of the total number of ASU students studying abroad, down from 49 percent in 2006-07. Thirteen percent of students studying abroad traveled to China. Other popular locations were Oceana (Australia and the Pacific Islands) and Africa.

The university is offering close to 60 faculty-led study abroad programs in more than 30 countries during the 2009-10 academic year.

OIED also has developed a new 10-day study abroad program to Costa Rica for freshmen before they start their classes at ASU with the hopes that once the students participate in the Costa Rica program, they will consider a future long-term studying abroad experience. Also, OIED has developed the Marvin Williamsen Study Abroad Scholarship Program to provide financial support to students. The program is named for the former head of OIED. For more information on ASU’s Office of International Education and Development, click to www.international.appstate.edu.

40th Annual State Government Internship Program Accepting Applications
North Carolina residents attending a college, university, technical institute or community college have until Wednesday, January 20, 2010, to apply for one of up to 65 paid state government internships available for summer 2010.

The State Government Internship Program offers students real-world experience in a wide range of state government workplaces. Internships provide opportunities for students to work in their chosen field and to consider careers in public service. More than 2,700 students have participated since the program was established 40 years ago.

Paid summer internships are available in locations across the state. They provide North Carolina students with a compensated professional work experience that integrates education, career development and public service. Opportunities exist in numerous recognized fields of study, from architecture to zoology. For more information about the program and/or for a listing of summer 2010 internships, call the Youth Advocacy and Involvement Office in the N.C. Department of Administration at 919-807-4400 or click to www.doa.state.nc.us/yaio/internprogramdetails.htm.

N.C. Trout Breathe Easier After Court Ruling
The N.C. Court of Appeals last week upheld the state’s protective buffer for trout streams in a victory for North Carolina’s water quality, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center. The decision came after attorneys with the center argued that a golf course constructed at Mountain Air Country Club in Yancey County violated state buffer requirements.

“This ruling is excellent news for everyone who values clean mountain streams as environmental and economic treasures,” said Blan Holman, a Southern Environmental Law Center attorney. “It’s also great news for our trout which need cold, clear water to thrive. The court’s decision confirmed that water quality must be protected for North Carolinians and fish downstream from big developments.”

The court’s decision restores protection for thousands of miles of designated trout streams across the state. It also clarifies the limits on the discretion of state regulators in considering requests from developers to remove streamside vegetation and enclose streams in pipes, activities that are not temporary or minimal and thus not permissible in trout buffers, according to the Court of Appeals. Responding to claims that the trout buffer statute should allow razing of trees by streams to clear the way for golf courses, the court responded that the law it was construing “is a pollution control act, not a development promotion act.”

“The court’s decision gives the state clear guidance on how to handle future requests from developers to disturb land around trout streams,” said Julie Youngman, senior attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center.

Piping trout streams and denaturalizing the areas next to those streams is a recurring part of proposals for developments in North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains, especially for mountaintop golf courses. The Mountain Air golf course posed impacts to thousands of feet of stream because the mountainside trout stream running through it was reshaped and severely modified to accommodate fairways and greens.

Numerous studies show that vegetated buffers prevent sedimentation and warming of mountain streams, which in their natural state run cold and clear. The trout buffer requirement was enacted because trout require clean, cold water and are therefore vulnerable to buffer loss due to streamside developments.

The Southern Environmental Law Center represented the nonprofit Clean Water for North Carolina and two downstream landowners in this case.

Local Law Enforcement Locate Missing 4-Year-Old Vilas Boy
After a 4.5-hour search through thick woods and underbrush in Vilas on November 28, law enforcement staff from Watauga County Sheriff’s Office, Beaver Dam Fire Department, Beaver Dam First Responders, Watauga County Emergency Management, Watauga Medics, Watauga County Rescue Squad and Zionville Volunteer Fire Department successfully located a missing 4-year-old boy and reunited him with his family, who described the experience as “the best Christmas present we could receive.” The boy apparently wandered one half-mile from the residence and got lost. Following a medical evaluation by Watauga Rescue personnel, the juvenile was found to be slightly dehydrated but had no other medical issues.

Watauga Public Library Closed Friday
The Watauga County Public Library in Boone will be closed for a Staff Training Day on Friday, December 4, until 1:00 p.m. The library will then be open until 5:00 p.m.