2Th9 Daily Tar HeelTuesday, September 22, 1987
!MqmMb may munm fow stole office
By LAURIE DUNCAN
Stan Writer
In an effort to bring several
minority issues to the forefront, a
former state senator and a Fayette
ville businessman are considering
entering the 1988 lieutenant gover
nor's race.
Marion "Rex" Harris, a black
businessman from Fayetteville who
operates a dry cleaners and
washerette and 16 other businesses in
eight states, said he would run for
the Democratic nomination if former
state Sen. John Winters declined to
enter the race.
Winters, a 67-year-old Raleigh
land developer, said he has been
studying the financial feasibility of
running for lieutenant governor
because until now no other minority
candidates have expressed interest in
the race.
"This is the time for a minority
candidate to win the office," he said.
"The other candidates out there aren't
charismatic."
But neither has decided which man
should run.
If younger and more viable minor
ity candidates enter the race for
lieutenant governor, Winters said he
would bow out. He said he would
rather pay attention to his land
development business than reenter
politics.
"I'd like to see a younger person
with far more time (to spend in office)
running," Winters said. "If Mr. Harris
will run, 111 gladly back off."
Harris, in his fifties, said he could
afford to run a $500,000 campaign.
Both men support more funding
for traditionally black universities
and eliminating second primaries
during elections. Winters said
black universities historically have
been underfunded.
"There shouldn't be any tradition
ally minority schools," he said. "Since
we have 16 (state) institutions, we
need to have some of them deal in
specialized areas to attract all kinds
of people."
If minority institutions want first
class status, they need to have the
money to establish policies and
programs that will increase enroll
ment, Winters said. For instance,
making them institutes of special
training would increase enrollment
and encourage integration of black
and white students, he said.
Another issue concerning candi
dates is second primaries or runoff
elections. If no candidate wins at least
50.1 percent of the vote in the first
primary, a second primary is held for
the two top vote-getters.
Second primaries have caused
bitter fights among both political
parties in North Carolina since the
late 1950s, because they favor white
male candidates over minorities.
"(Second primaries) are a tool to
keep minorities from winning office,"
Winters said.
Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland,
a contender in the race, also said
second primaries tend to discriminate
against black candidates.
"Second primaries are expensive
and make for a great deal of hostility
for members of both parties," Rand
said.
Rand supports a bill to lower the
required percentage of votes for first
primary victories from 50.1 percent
to 40 percent. The bill, introduced in
the N.C. Senate in 1987 by Demo
cratic Sen. Ralph Hunt, would
increase a minority candidate's chan
ces of getting elected.
Coert ireopras compensation cases
Dy MICHAEL JORDAN
Staff Writer
The N.C. Court of Appeals re
versed a decision by the state Indus
trial Commission to close four
workers' compensation cases last
Thursday.
The commission closed the cases
without making a decision in any of
them, but will now have to reopen
them, the Court of Appeals' decision
said.
The former chairman of the com
mission, David Brooks, abused his
authority by intervening in the cases,
said Paul Pulley, the Durham attor
ney who handled the appeal.
"The Industrial Commission has
had a political swing since Governor
(Jim) Martin started making appoint
ments," Pulley said.
Brooks had defended the state in
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two of the compensation cases before
Martin appointed him to chair the
neutral commission, which clearly
violated the political balance, Pulley
said. The appeals court did not
address Pulley's charges in its
decision.
The court said the commission
closed the case on an inapplicable
technicality.
William Stephenson, one of the
three commissioners on the Industrial
Commission, refused to comment on
Pulley's charges against Brooks, but
he defended the commission's
actions.
"We Ve been severely criticized over
the years for dragging our feet, and
we felt it was time to settle these
claims," Stephenson said.
Stephenson said the cases were
more than a year old when the
commission closed them in 1986.
The workers said in their claims
that they were seeking compensation
for loss of hearing caused by their
working conditions.
The commission closed the cases
after successive delays in scheduling
the depositions of former audiologist
Clarice Hug, Stephenson said.
Pulley said the depositions were
vital to the workers' claims, but Hug
was unable to present them because
she moved three times during the
cases.
Pulley said the commission erred
by closing the cases without inform
ing the workers' attorney, Charles
Hassell of Raleigh, of its intentions.
Pulley said Hassell would probably
continue to represent the workers in
the reopened cases.
Neither Pulley nor Stephenson
knew when Hug would present the
depositions, and Hassell could not be
reached for comment.
British crewmen still missing
after Iranian attack on tanker
From Associated Press reports '
MANAMA, Bahrain Iranian
gunboats ambushed a British-flag
tanker, leaving two crewmen
missing about 100 miles north of
Bahrain Monday night.
The attack on the British tanker
Gentle Breeze, which was set
ablaze by Iranian gunboats, took
place about 9 p.m. (2 p.m. EDT).
Gulf-based salvage sources and
Lloyds Shipping Intelligence Unit
in London said the Gentle Breeze
was sailing empty from Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania, to Kuwait
when it was attacked about 20
miles west of Farsi, a small island
used by Iranian Revolutionary
Guards for speedboat attacks
against neutral shipping in the
area.
Biden gives false information
WASHINGTON Sen. Joe
Biden claimed during a campaign
appearance in New Hampshire
last spring that he finished in the
top half of his law school class,
although records indicate he
finished nftar the bottom.
In a videotape aired by the
public service cable network C
SPAN several months ago, the
Delaware Democrat was asked at
a campaign stop in Claremont,
N.H., on April 3 about what law
school he attended and how well
he did.
"The first year in law school I
decided I didn't want to be in law
school and ended up in the bottom
two-thirds of my class and then
decided I wanted to stay and went
back to law school and in fact
ended up in the top half of my
class," he went on.
But last week Biden released his
law school records, which showed
he had graduated 76th in a law
school class of 85. The law school
transcript also showed he made
News in Brief
little progress in class standing
throughout the three-year course,
ranking 80th out of 100 in the first
semester of the first year, and 79th
out of 87 the second semester of
his second year.
In the videotape, Biden went on
to say, "I went to (Syracuse) law
school on a full academic
scholarship."
The records he released last
week indicated he had an $800
scholarship from the school out of
a total tuition of $1,620 as well
as $1,000 in room and board from
his work as a residence adviser in
a residence hall and student loans.
Biden also said he won the
international moot court compe
tition, was the outstanding student
in the political science department
(as an undergraduate) and grad
uated with three undergraduate
degrees.
Newsweek magazine said Biden
does not mention the moot court
competition on his resume, and
did not win the political science
award at the University of Dela
ware, where he received a single
B.A. in political science and
history.
Falwell plans to stay for now
COLUMBIA, S.C. The Rev.
Jerry Falwell will not resign at
Tuesday's PTL board meeting, but
he stands by a pledge to leave if
a judge gives supporters of PTL
founder Jim Bakker a majority on
the television ministry's board, a
spokesman said.
Instead, he said he expects
Falwell to. release some details of
the ministry's reorganization plan,
though he could offer no details.
U.S. cigarette smoking rate Kits mew low
By SHARON KEBSCHULL
Staff Writer
The cigarette smoking rate has
reached a new low in the United
States, a survey released by the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
said.
Of more than 13,000 Americans
surveyed late last year, 26.5 percent
reported that they currently smoke,
down four points from a 1985 study
and almost 14 points in the last two
decades. -.--
The highest rate of smokers, 45.9
percent, was among black men, 25
to 34 years old, said Ron Davis,
director of the CDC's U.S. Office on
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for
Critical Theory
announces a conference
CONVERGENCE IN CRISIS:
Narratives of the History of Theory
SEPTEMBER 24 (PM) . SEPTEMBER 27 (AM) 1987
Bryan Center-Duke University-West Campus
AMONG THE PARTICIPANTS
Anthony Appiah, Jonathan Arac, Stanley Aronowitz,
Peter & Christa Burgher, Jonathan Culler, Terry
Eagleton, Stanley Fish, Nancy Frazer, Henry Louis
V Gates Jr., Wlad Godzich, Fredric R. Jameson, T.
Jackson Lears, Frank Lentricchia, Colin MacCabe,
Toril Moi, Franco Moretti, Barbara Herrnstein
Smith, Gayatri Spivak, Jane Tompkins, Lindsay
Waters
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Call: 684-4127
ALL SESSIONS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Smoking and Health. The highest
rate for women, 36.4 percent, was in
the 35- to 44-year-old black women's
group, he said.
Males 35 to 44 years old had the
highest rate in the mixed race group,
Davis said. For women, the 25- to
34-year-old group had the highest
rate.
The decline in smoking furthers a
sharp drop that began in 1964 when
the U.S. surgeon general's report
warned smokers, of the high risk-of-cancer.
At that time, 40 percent of
the adult population smoked.
An estimated 47 million Americans
still smoke, but the surgeon general's
goal of a 25 percent rate of smokers
by 1990 has almost been met.
Researchers are looking ahead to a
smoke-free society by 2000.
Both the 1990 and the 2000 goal
are realistic because smoking is
becoming so socially unacceptable
that smokers will not continue to
smoke in the presence of non
smokers, Davis said.
The tobacco industry has been hit
fairly hard by the reduction, said
Davis, with total cigarette sales down
by 1 to 2 percent per year, despite
population growth. Although
cigarette sales have dropped, more
smokeless tobacco products have
sold.
In the CDC survey, which covered
adults, 17-years old and up, male
smokers outnumbered female smok
ers. But in a 1985 survey of college
students, 18 percent of women
smoked, compared to 10 percent of
men. A 1986 survey of high school
seniors found that 20 percent of
women and 17 percent of men had
smoked.
Rates will continue to decline in
both groups, said Davis, because the
figures are down substantially from
a few years ago.
But he said it is possible that
women's rates will decline more
slowly than men.
"We may have a higher rate of
smokers among women in ten years
or so," he said.
The slowly declining smoking rates
among women are partly because
women did not start smoking until
about 20 years after men, Davis said.
On the UNC campus, no statistics
are kept of how many smokers attend
the university, but not many smokers
are listed in the housing department's
? records.
"I doubt if we have more than 100
who communicated to us on their
applications that they use tobacco
products," said Collin Rustin, asso
ciate director for housing. "We may
have between 100 and 200, but 200
is on the high side," he said. "The
few that we have, we have a hard
time placing (out of the 6,925 beds
available this year)."
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