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The University and Towns
In Brief
Durham Man Attacked,
Abducted on Campus
A 23-year-old Durham resident was
attacked outside of Cobb Residence
Hall at about 11:20 p.m. Saturday night,
reports state.
fhe victim told police that three men
pulled up next to him in a black 1980
Nissan.
He told police the men approached
him, hit him in the back of the head
with a piece of wood and pushed him
into the vehicle.
The men continued to assault him
and robbed him of sl6 in cash while
they transported him to the Cat’s
Cradle in Carrboro, the victim told
police.
Upon arrival, the men kicked him
out of the vehicle.
The victim contacted a UNC student
living in Cobb for a ride to the hospital.
He suffered broken bones and severe
lacerations, according to police reports.
Deadlines Extended
For Drop, Withdrawal
The University has extended its drop
and withdrawal deadlines due to weath
er closings.
The deadline to drop classes has
been extended to 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Students will be permitted to with
draw from the University with a 80 per
cent refund through Wednesday.
After Wednesday, the refund
decreases by 10 percent each week until
March 22. Twenty-five dollars will not
be refunded. The six-week drop dead
line will remain as Feb. 23.
Carolina Week Show
To Air Wednesday
Carolina Week, anew student-run
television program, will air for the first
time at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The show will continue to air at 7
p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
nights each week on Student Television.
Off-campus viewers can watch the
show on the Chapel Hill public access
chanhel.
Students Get Chance
To Attend ACC Games
Students can put their names in a
drawing this week for a lottery to get the
right to buy tickets to this year’s Adantic
Coast Conference basketball tourna
ment.
Students can sign up in the Pit from
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through
Wednesday. Each sheet of paper will
have room for 20 names, and seven
sheets will be drawn for a total of 140
students. The tickets will cost about
$220 and students must purchase them
individually.
Carrboro to Sponsor
Girls Field Hockey
The Carrboro Recreation and Parks
Department is sponsoring a Youth Field
Hockey program for girls in fifth
through eighth grade. Registration for
the program will begin Feb. 7 for
Orange County residents and Feb. 14
for non-Orange County residents.
Those interested in registering
should do so at the recreation depart
ment, located at 301 W. Main St. in
Carrboro.
The fee is s3l and registration forms
must be signed by a parent or guardian.
Space is reserved on a first come, first
serve basis.
For more information, call 968-7703.
Volunteers Needed
For Rape Crisis Center
The Orange County Rape Crisis
Center is accepting applications for its
spring 2000 volunteer training class
which takes place Saturday.
The center is looking for applicants
to work as Community Educators and
Companions.
Community Educators present pro
grams about sexual violence and its pre
vention in the community.
Companions carry a pager on 24-
hour shifts to respond to calls that come
in on the Center’s crisis line, providing
support and information for survivors of
sexual violence.
For more information, call 968-4647.
Local Bookstore Seeks
Volunteer Workers
Internationalist Books and
Magazines, a local cooperatively owned
bookstore, is looking for volunteers to
help run the store and perform several
other business functions.
Opportunities include three-hour
weekly shifts and internships.
For more information, call 942-1740.
From Staff Reports
Suit Claims State Misuse of Settlement Funds
By Eugene Wheeler
Staff Writer
Proponents of a tobacco lawsuit
recendy filed against the state of North
Carolina say the state is misusing $1.2
billion to $1.5 billion that should be
awarded to individuals suffering from
tobacco-related illnesses.
According to a November 1998 set
tlement signed by Attorney General
Mike Easley, the state is slated to receive
$4.6 billion over 25 years from tobacco
companies to cover Medicaid costs from
tobacco-related illnesses.
The state plans to use the money for
a variety of purposes, including health
Museum
Officials
Seek Funds
Chapel Hill Museum leaders
say the facility provides
a valuable town service
and should receive funding.
By Tricia Barrios
Staff Writer
Facing unexpected financial con
straints, the Chapel Hill Museum is ask
ing the town to help ease its burden.
The museum’s board of trustees
claims the museum provides an impor
tant cultural service to the town and is
asking for $20,000 for annual opera
tional support. It is also requesting town
services in building upkeep.
Board member Alan Rimer said that
when the museum first started, it agreed
to use the town’s building without any
further financial assistance.
“But the building is owned by
Chapel Hill,” he said. “It’s a capital
asset of the town. If the museum were to
leave that building after putting in a
brand new heating system, the town
would have a brand new heating sys
tem, and that’s not fair.”
Rimer explained that the original
See MUSEUM, Page 6
Slow E-mail, Listserv Problems Prompt ATN Action
By Will Folshee
Staff Writer
As the snow and ice have mounted
across campus, so has community ten
sion over problems with UNC’s e-mail
and listserv facilities.
John Oberlin, executive director of
Academic Technology & Networks, said
ATN was making changes to rectify the
sluggish e-mail system and complaints
about the new listserv software, efforts
hampered by the last few days of wintry
weather.
Local Eatery to Open Today
Owners of Spanky's spruced
up the restaurant by adding
a $30,000 cherry wood bar
and a wall for UNC sports.
By Robert Albright
Staff Writer
After closing its doors to customers
nearly seven months ago, Franklin
Street staple Spanky’s will reopen
today, offering anew look and
revamped menu.
Spanky’s, which has served local res
idents at its 101 E. Franklin St. location
for 22 years, closedjuly 4 for major ren
ovations.
Co-manager Chris Ijames said he
hoped customers would enjoy Spanky’s
brand-new downstairs bar, brighter
lighting, refmished floors, changed
menu and redesigned upstairs and
downstairs seating.
“This is anew restaurant in an old loca
tion,” he said. “There has been a buzz on
the street from people asking when the
place will open back up, and I think these
people will be pleased with the changes."
Ijames said customers would notice
new doors and track lights on
Spanky’s exterior. But, he said, the
majority of changes were inside the
restaurant’s doors.
Ijames said anew $30,000 cherry
wood bar, along with a black and white
tile floor, would highlight the ground
floor. The downstairs also has an entire
wall that serves as a tribute to the lesser
known athletic teams at UNC.
care and financial aid to tobacco-depen
dent communities.
But Asheville attorney Larry
McDevitt, a UNC alumnus who filed
the suit Thursday, said he had experi
ence in tobacco cases, and became sus
picious when he learned that the settle
ment was bringing in more money than
the state had paid for health care costs.
McDevitt said the amount paid by
Medicaid was awarded to the state, but
the excess money should legally belong
to the victims. He said the individuals
suffering from tobacco-related illnesses
were not actually receiving any of the
money, although they were legally enti
tled to a share.
S
M
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DTH/KAARIN MOORE
Chapel Hill Museum Director Morgan Kenney examines an exhibit on Paul Green. Claiming the museum provides an important historical service
for the town, museum officials are asking for a yearly sum of $20,000 to assist in operational support.
“We understand that it’s not working
correctly, and we’re not happy with it
either,” Oberlin said.
He said ATN was evaluating the new
Lyris listserv software and the new Pine
e-mail software, which was installed dur
ing Winter Break. “We have to make
changes, and then wait a day to see if the
problem has been corrected,” he said.
“We can’t see a clear cause as of yet.”
Oberlin said that on Friday night,
ATN was changing the main router that
connected the campus network to the e
mail and listserv server. All e-mail and
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DTH/LAURA GIOVANEUJ
Kenny Carlson end Chris Ijames, co-owner and co-manager of Spanky's,
hope to re-establish the restaurant as a Chapel Hill institution.
“We thought all the teams except
football and basketball needed a little
more recognition,” Ijames said.
In addition to the ground-floor reno
vations, designers moved the old bar
upstairs and created anew banquet
room with a seating capacity of 40.
While numerous changes were made
to the physical appearance of Spanky’s,
Ijames said the menu was also modified.
Most of the new selections are on the
dinner menu, with new entrees such as
salmon and baby-back ribs.
“There is still a good variety of tradi
tional items like sandwiches on the
menu to cater to the University crowd,”
he said. “But for dinner we have added
News
Hilda White is one such person. A
62-year-old Asheville resident and lead
plaintiff in the case, she does not receive
any of the excess settlement funds under
the state’s current plan, although medic
aid has paid some of her medical costs.
White smoked for 35 years, ranging
from half a pack to 2 1/2 packs each day.
She suffers from heart problems, dia
betes, emphysema and sleep apnea, and
has required oxygen support for years.
W’hite joined the lawsuit hoping
McDevitt would succeed in helping pay
her medical bills.
But Don Hobart, chief council to
Easley who helped draft the nationwide
settlement, said it was doubtful the state
listserv traffic must travel through this
router before reaching Isis.
Oberlin said the problems with the e
mail system were related to peak time
usage because the system was working
well within system parameters.
He said there were more than 4,000
people connected to Isis at any given
time and that between 12 a.m. and 4
p.m. Friday, 309,000 e-mail messages
were delivered by the server.
Oberlin said the problems baffled the
ATN staff because the size of the system
had been doubled over Winter Break.
new entrees so that any group could
come here and find something to eat.”
Robert Humphreys, executive direc
tor of Chapel Hill’s Downtown
Commission, said he and the town were
ready for Spanky’s to open back up.
“I’m just tickled to death to have it
back,” he said. “Spanky’s has been the
topic of discussion on the street for quite
some time since it closed.”
Many people strolling down Franklin
Street this weekend discussed Spanky’s
reopening,
Don Johnson, co-owner of Creative
Metalsmiths, which is several doors
See SPANKY'S, Page 6
would change its allocation program.
“I do not expect that these individu
als will be successful in recovering these
funds,” he said.
Hobart said that as of Friday, he had
not seen the suit and could not discuss
any specifics. He said suits filed by
smokers in other states targeted tobac
co companies instead of their respective
states. “The North Carolina lawsuit was
different because it focuses on unfair
trade and racketeering charges,” he said.
McDevitt said he did not object to the
state’s use of all funds, only those
exceeding what the state originally paid
in medical costs. He said they were ask
ing the court to find that the federal law
“We’ve doubled the number of
CPU’s, hard drives for storage and
quadrupled the size of the network,” he
said. “We’re going to fix the system, and
it’s going to be the best of any campus
when we’re through with it.”
The changes might not come soon
enough for many groups around cam
pus that are feeling all tied up by the
changeover in software.
Sangam President Susan Kansagra
said its listserv was still having problems
after the Lyris changeover.
Kansagra said Sangam had more
Affordable Housing
Planned for Elderly
j
Construction on a 41-unit
apartment complex could
break ground by July if the
project gets local approval.
By Kathryn McLamb
Staff Writer
With new money in its coffers and
big plans on the horizon, the town of
Chapel Hill might soon be able to pro
vide a more inviting living option for its
elderly residents with limited means.
A $3.8 million federal grant obtained
in November from the Department of
Housing and Urban Development could
help finance 41 apartments on Merritt
Mill Road for low-income elderly resi
dents.
Belaying HUD fears that the building
Elections Notes^jf^
rescheduled mandatory candidate meeting will
be held from 7 p.m - 8:30 p.m. today in 111 Murphey Hall.
All candidates planning to run for office must attend.
‘Candidate petitions are due at 5 p.m. today.
‘Advertising and campaigning will start at 10 p.m.
today following the mandatory meeting.
‘Candidates with questions should contact Elections Board
■ Chairwoman Catherine Yates.
Monday, January 31, 2000
was applicable, and to order state offi
cials to pay the injured people of North
Carolina with the excess funds.
“We just don’t want the poor people
left out of the process,” he said.
Hobart said the state’s setdement was
not designed to reward smokers, but
there was nothing in the construction of
the settlement that would prevent
injured smokers from suing the tobacco
companies. “We feel confident that what
we have put together and what the leg
islature has done with the funds is going
to be held up,” he said.
The State <8 National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
than 400 people on its listserv, but
everyone with a last name after the let
ter “P” had been deleted from the lists.
“We’re going back through member
ship logs to piece our listserv back
together again,” she said.
Oberlin admitted that ATN had not
educated the user community enough
about the new listserv softw are. “We did
not have enough time to educated peb
pie about list management.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
permit process would be lengthy, the
Town Council has already granted expe
dited processing for the special use per
mit request made by the project's spon
sor, the First Baptist Church of Chapel
Hill.
“We expect to be finished with our
process by May 15," said the Rev. J. R.
Manley of First Baptist Church. “:If the
permit is granted) we expect to break
ground by July.”
The Town Council has until Mav 15
to vote on the permit. But council mem
bers have already expressed support for
the project because it addressed public
needs in Chapel Hill.
“We clearly have developed a lot of
high-end assisted living in town,” said
council member Bill Strom. “But there
are very few options for people of limited
See APARTMENTS, Page 6
3