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Estate Case
Reaches
Settlement
The first wife of late
Chancellor Michael Hooker
issued a complaint about
her daughter's inheritance.
By Jessica Joye
Staff Writer
The widow and daughter of the late
Chancellor Michael Hooker recendy
setded a dispute about the former chan
cellor’s estate.
Although no details have been made
public, a lawsuit brought by Hooker’s
first wife, Anna Hooker Bums, was dis
missed last month.
Burns filed a complaint in Orange
County court last fall stating that her 19
year-old daughter, Alexandra, had not
received what was rightfully hers from
her father’s estate.
Carmen Hooker Buell, Hooker’s
widow and the executor of his estate,
argued that her late husband’s will met
the requirements of the divorce contract
In the complaint Bums claimed
Hooker’s estate owed her daughter
S3OO,(XX) from a life insurance policy and
about $102,000 for half of Alexandra’s col
lege expenses at Brown University. In the
couple’s 1992 divorce agreement, Hooker
agreed to make his daughter the benefi
ciary of a $300,000 insurance policy and
to pay half of her college expenses.
But at the time of his death from non-
Hodgkins lymphoma in June 1999,
Hooker had not paid his portion of
Alexandra’s tuition because she had not
yet graduated.
In a four-sentence will Hooker wrote
two months before his death, he left
SIOO,OOO to his mother, $300,000 to his
daughter and the remainder of his estate
to Hooker Buell. There was no $300,000
insurance policy naming Alexandra as
beneficiary when Hooker died.
According to Burns’ complaint,
Hooker Buell said she thought her late
husband intended the $300,000 stipu
lated in his will to substitute for the
insurance policy referred to in the
divorce agreement.
The case was dismissed last month.
Neither Hooker Buell, who is now the
state secretary of health and human ser
vices, or Burns could be reached for
comment. According to a News &
Observer article published Thursday,
Robert B. Glenn, the Durham attor
ney who represented Alexandra,
said a strict confidentiality agree
ment was a part of the setdement.
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
Town Gets Fast Japanese Food
By Isaac Groves
Staff Writer
The Kurama Japanese Seafood and
Steak House - Sushi Bar opened an
express location on Columbia Street last
week.
The Kurama Express in Chapel Hill
is a spin-off of the Kurama Japanese
steak house near South Square Mall in
Durham.
But unlike the Durham location,
there will not be any hot griddles and
flames at the tables in Chapel Hill.
“Right now, it’s just sushi and noo
dles,” said Mimi Scarborough, manager
of Kurama.
The restaurant, located at 105
Columbia St., has a counter and five
booths.
According to the menu, there will be
37 types of sushi and sashimi and four
types of noodles.
Kurama, named after a sacred
Japanese mountain, is the newest in a
chain of five restaurants in the Triangle,
Hilton .Head, S.C., and Augusta, Ga.
The chain has been family-run for 25
years. “1 guess you could call it a chain,”
Scarborough said. “It’s mostly myself,
my mother and my godfather.” %
N.C. Senators Ask Bush for Funds to Clean Up Air
Pollutants from the TVA
power plant are causing
increased acid rain, smog
and ozone accumulation.
By Ben DeSantis
Staff Writer
N.C. senators used their few minutes
with President Bush during his first visit to
the state last Wednesday to push for fund-
Engaging Play Spoofs, Goofs on Shakespeare
By David Povill
Staff Writer
It’s opening night of “Everton High
School Presents: Shakespeare’s Greatest
Hits.” Before the show even begins, the
audience is laughing.
Onstage is a great gray castle built
from paper and cardboard and an
unidentified object with a safari-print
blanket draped over it, displaying a
blown-up likeness of Shakespeare’s face.
Inflatable Easter bunnies litter the stage.
A bleached blond man with a lisp and
a penchant for spandex introduces himself
as the show’s director, Doug Ayman, and
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A passer-by drops a penny into the transportation jar of the "Penny Poll," indicating how he would spend
his tax money if it were up to him. The poll was conducted by the Orange County Peace Coalition.
Robert Humphreys, executive direc
tor of the Chapel Hill Downtown
Commission, said he was glad to have
something new in the formerly vacant
space. “It’s never good to have an empty
spot, and I’m glad that somebody is
putting something creative in there,” he
said.
Humphreys said
he is not worried
about having
another chain store
at the prime down
town intersection.
“It’s just a differ
ent way of doing
business,”
Humphreys said.
“The thing that is
important is is that
“I’d like to keep Chapel Hill
as diverse as possible. 1 like
when businesses are owned by
people who live in the area. ”
Aaron Nelson
Chamber of Commerce Director
they become part of the community and
tailor their services to the community.”
Scarborough said she is happy with
the restaurant’s location because of the
heavy foot traffic and the quality of
downtown.
“Franklin Street has changed a lot in
the past two years,” she said. “Franklin
Street is really improving.”
Aaron Nelson, director of the Chapel
Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce,
ing to improve the state’s environment
A group of senators led by Senate
President Pro Tern Marc Basnight, D-
Beaufort, gave a letter signed by all 50
state senators to Bush, urging him and
Congress to help fund cleanups of air pol
lution damaging the state’s environment.
The letter was the result of findings
by the N.C. Senate Select Committee on
Mountain Air Quality.
The committee reported that visibili
ty in the state’s mountains has dwindled
from 65 miles in 1980 to 15 miles.
Lab! Theatre
"Everton High
School Presents:
Shakespeare’s
Greatest Hits”
Play Makers Theatre
Sunday, April 15
★ ★★★★
invites the crowd to
a magical place he
calls “Shakespeare
land.”
And so begins
an hour or so of
absolute hilarity.
As the title sug
gests, the show is a
spoof of high
school produc-
tions, and no detail is overlooked.
Director Ken Keech (who, appropri
ately, plays the role of Ayman) goes to
great lengths to recreate the amateur feel
and chaotic absurdity of a school play,
also said he was not worried about hav
ing this type of chain store downtown.
“I’d like to keep downtown Chapel
Hill as diverse as possible,” he said. “I
like when businesses are owned by peo
ple who live in the area.
“I think there’s a difference between
chain restaurants and a restaurant with
two locations.”
Japanese restau
rants soon will be
very common
downtown.
Directly across
from Kurama, in
the empty store
front where Roly
Poly used to be, is
a sign for Sakura
Express sushi and
noodles. The new restaurant is still
under construction, but seems to be
close to finished.
“If there are two, then you’ll always
know you can go to Columbia Street
and know you can get into a Japanese
restaurant,” Humphreys said. “It will be
like shoe stores in the mall.”
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
Committee Co-chairman Sen. Stephen
Metcalf, D-Buncombe, said he believes
Bush’s reaction to the letter was positive
and that he hopes the president acts on the
issue soon. “He promised to take it back to
Washington and do some research on it,
and then he’d get back to us.”
According to committee reports, the
major cause of the pollutants is the
Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally
owned power plant.
Dr. Robert Brack, professor of plant
pathology and forestry at N.C. State
News
from the rousing cheers every time “The
Mick” (the school’s star quarterback,
played byjon Karpinos) enters the stage to
the boos and occasional shoe thrown on
stage at the band nerd, Neener (Nathan
Blumenthal).
The additional cast of characters is
superbly ridiculous. There’s Tad (Matt
Mercer), the ex-lacrosse star who keeps
his thespian endeavors a secret from his
father. Holden (Charles Roche) is a pot
smoking space-cadet. Sasha (Michael
Bullard), the Ukrainian foreign exchange
student, is confused when everyone calls
him Jose and speaks to him in Spanish
(“Donde esta el sombrero, Jose?”).
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Freshman Sara Atkins works on the catwalk above the stage in Memorial Hall on Monday afternoon.
Atkins and the rest of the staff were setting up for the Moscow Ballet, which will preform Wednesday night
as the year's final installment of the Carolina Union Performing Arts Series.
University, said the TVA is responsible
for most of the 80 percent of North
Carolina’s air pollution problems caused
by out-of-state agents. “TVA is the single
largest emitter of sulfur and nitrogen
oxide in the United States.”
Sulfur and nitrogen oxide are causes
of acid rain and ozone, two elements
that produce smog when combined with
heat and light.
As Bush went back to Washington,
state legislators prepared to discuss in
state pollution reforms.
It’s hard to put the characters’ over
the-top performances into words, and
any further attempt would be pointless -
you just have to be there. But the expe
rience of these characters is unforget
table.
They take the most shape during the
“intermission.” Keech smartly hides a
whole slew of jokes into this fake 10-
minute “break” for the audience to grab
some fresh air and for the cast to work
through some problems with the show.
The brilliance of the show is in
Keech’s comedic mind and his ability to
perfecdy recreate every aspect of a bad
high school production.
Coalition Questions
Federal Spending
The Peace Coalition held a
"Penny Poll" for passers-by
to demonstrate how they
would spend U.S. tax funds.
By Matt Viser
Staff Writer
A local awareness group used
Monday’s annual deadline for filing fed
eral and state tax returns as a reason to
question how the federal government
allocates the tax money it collects.
The Orange County Peace Coalition
conducted its annual “Penny Poll” in
front of the Franklin Street post office
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Peace Coalition, which works to
educate people about peace and justice
issues, consists of 11 different organiza
tions including UNC’s Students United
for a Responsible Global Environment.
The group set out six glass jars
marked for education, environment,
health care, housing, military and trans
portation. Another jar was marked
“other,” for administration, Congress,
foreign affairs and the judiciary.
Passers-by were given 10 pennies and
asked, “How would you like to spend
your tax money?”
Participants placed pennies in the jars
of their choice, indicating how they would
spend tax dollars if they had the authority.
After “spending” their tax dollars,
participants were shown how the feder
al government allocates spending.
Coalition member Margaret Misch
said the goal of the Penny Poll is to edu
cate the public. “People seem unaware
of where their money goes,” she said.
“We feel there’s excessive military
spending at the expense of social caus-
TOP 'KNOT'CH
Senate Bill 1078, introduced today,
aims to limit the amount of pollutants pro
duced by power plants.
The hill calls for reductions of 70 to
75 percent in levels of nitrous oxide and
sulfur dioxide by 2009 and 2013, respec
tively, and a reduction in levels of mer
cury by 50 to 60 percent.
Metcalf said state cleanups are neces
sary prior to future federal cleanups.
Meanwhile, senators said they are
hoping for a positive reply from Bush.
Committee Co-chairman Sen.
Tuesday, April 17, 2001
Even the show program is part of the
insanity, with cast bios ranging from shout
outs to Ukranian gibberish. The result is a
wonderful piece of theater, integrating
gags, sound gags, print gags and prop
gags into one ridiculously funny show.
It’s far from high brow theater, but if
you’re looking for a night of belly-laughs
to fight off the end-of-the-semester blues,
“Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits” is proof that
laughter is always the best medicine.
The final performance is tonight at
8:15 p.m. in Playmakers Theatre.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
es nationally as well as internationally.”
Many participants agreed that the
government doesn’t always fairly repre
sent the American public.
“It seems like what everybody wants
and what the government wants is dif
ferent,” said Mary Paden, 28, of
Durham. “The government is allocating
funds for the present rather than looking
to the future.”
Paden said she voted for concerns of
the “future” such as health care, educa
tion and environment She didn’t put
any money into the military, on which
the Peace Coalition claims the govern
ment spends 22 percent of the tax
money it collects.
Dave Walker, 20, of Carrboro, also
said he thinks the government spends
too much money on the military, citing
paranoia as a reason for the excessive
spending. “The U.S. is afraid of losing
everything they have,” he said. “But we
should be more concerned with internal
decay rather than external decay.”
Walker said he put most of his money
into education. “Once you have educa
tion, the other things will follow,” he said.
“Being a teacher is one of the most
important jobs in the country and it’s
also one of the most underpaid.”
Jim Nee, who was in town from
Boston to visit his girlfriend, said he had
slightly different priorities. “I voted
largely for military and transportation”
he said. “In my area, all transportation
goes towards mass transit.”
But Conley Davis, 14, from Farmville,
didn’t hesitate to put more money into die
education container. “I feel that education
is important for me, for my children, and
for my children’s children.”
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
Charles Carter, D-Buncombe, said he
believes Bush’s past environmental
record while governor of Texas could
play a major part in his endorsing the
cleanups. “He’s done certain things with
the environment that aren’t very popu
lar,” Carter said. “President Bush said he
needed an environmental issue (to
address) and this was one he was very
interested in.”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
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