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SBI Detonates Device On Campus
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DTH/KARA ARNDT
State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Tim Luper places detonating equipment next to the device discovered on Cameron Avenue
on Monday morning (above). An SBI robot is used to confirm that a device has been safely destroyed (right).
Low Turnout for
Anti-Tuition Rally
Frustrates Leaders
Student Body President Justin Young says
only an estimated 200 people stopped by the
Pit on Monday to listen to the tuition rally.
By Daniel Thigpen
Assistant University Editor
Student government leaders who organized a rally in the Pit
on Monday to protest a proposed tuition increase said they were
disappointed with a low student turnout.
The N.C. General Assembly is considering a proposal that
would result in a SIOO tuition increase for in-state undergradu
ates at UNC-Chapel Hill and about a S9OO increase for out-of
state undergraduates.
Both additional charges would be applied retroactively dur
ing the fall 2001 semester.
The increases, which legislators have said they hope to final
ize by the end of the week, would come on top of a S3OO
increase approved last year and an increase of around SIOO
already charged to students this fall.
Despite the possibility of additional charges, rally organizers
had difficulty enticing student involvement.
Student Body President Justin Young called on students
through a bullhorn while other rallyists held signs reading “Don’t
Pay Twice” and “Care About Your Money.”
“It’s going to take everyone... not just me talking on a micro
phone,” Young said. “We need people to step up.”
; Students passing through the Pit were encouraged to e-mail
their legislative representatives at a wireless Internet station set
See RALLY, Page 7
Bomb Threat Halts N.C. House Session
By Alex Kaplun
State & National Editor
RALEIGH - Monday was a day most
state legislators won’t soon forget -but not
for the reason they expected.
At 6:34 p.m. - 30 minutes into the
House’s legislative session - House Speaker
Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, was alerted to a
bomb threat made on the Legislative
Building. Black immediately stopped the ses
sion and ordered everyone to leave the
building. Police searched the building and
did not find any kind of explosive device.
At a time when most legislators were
expecting to debate one of the most signifi
cant pieces of legislation of the 2001 session,
they found themselves instead across the
street on the steps of the N.C. State Museum
of Natural Sciences.
The bomb threat originally was phoned
into the Wake County Sheriff’s Department,
which then relayed the information to the
Capitol police who phoned Black’s desk on
the House floor.
Black said he was told that the person
who called in the bomb threat simply told
the police “there’s a bomb in the building
and it will explode.”
At press time, police had not identified
who called in the threat
Lawmakers and their staff quickly filed
out across the street where Black reconvened
the session on the steps of the natural sci
ences museum. But almost as soon as the
House session reconvened, it was adjourned.
Senate President Pro Tern Marc
Basnight, D-Beaufort, followed suit - can
celing the Senate session that was supposed
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The House chamber was already packed
with legislators, media personnel and
observers at the time of the bomb threat, as
the House lawmakers were expected to take
up a piece of legislation that many have been
waiting to debate for several months.
House lawmakers were expected to take
up a tax package that could have brought to
an end a budget debate that has stretched
two months into the fiscal year.
State lawmakers have been struggling to
build a balanced budget in the midst of a
worsening economy that forced legislators to
cut funding to state agencies and consider
several tax increase proposals.
On Thursday, Black unveiled a tax
increase package that was a combination of
the various proposals made by the House,
the Senate and Gov. Mike Easley.
The tax package breezed through the
House Finance Committee on Thursday, but
it remains unclear whether the proposal has
enough votes to clear the full House.
But Black said he decided not to bring up
the legislation during Monday’s session -
bomb threat or not. “I wasn’t going to bring
out the bill today,” said Black, adding that fin
ishing touches were being put on the legisla
tion and that it would hit the House today.
Black would not say if he had enough votes
to pass the legislation. “You never know
whether you have enough votes to pass some
thing until you actually vote on it,” he said.
But most legislators’ attention was divert
ed from the tax proposal by the bomb scare.
Rep. Thomas Wright, D-Brunswick, com
plained outside that die Legislative Building
that it was too easy for anyone to get into the
Police: Possible Bomb
Posed Risk of Injury
By Lizzie Breyer
University Editor
University police and the State
Bureau of Investigation detonated a
device resembling a pipe bomb
Monday on Cameron Avenue near the
center of campus.
The suspicious
object, described
by University
police chief Derek
Poarch as a “5-inch
piece of metal pipe
capped on both
ends,” was reported
to University police
atl 1:03 a.m.
Members of the
SBI bomb squad
arrived at the scene
at about 12:25 p.m.
and, after examina
tion, destroyed the
device in two sepa
rate explosions.
“No bomb went
off on this campus
today,” Poarch said.
“Both explosions
clearly were caused
by investigators.”
But Poarch said
the object might
have been danger-
**
ous even though it did not explode on its
own. “It looked like a pipe bomb, and
we’re treating it as a pipe bomb,” he said
at a press conference after the device had
been disabled. “It certainly could have
caused injury.”
Although Poarch declined to defini
tively identify the object or to comment
on tbe contents of the device, he said it
“absolutely” is possible that the object
was a bomb. “We detonated the device
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DTH/KIMBERLY CRAVEN
Lawmakers, staff and press wait outside the Legislative Building in Raleigh
after evacuating in response to a bomb threat.
building.
“We need to improve security in this
building,” Wright said. “If we don’t want to
protect ourselves, we could at least protect
the people that come to see us.”
In April, the U.S. Secret Service provided
the General Assembly with a list of ways
security could be improved in the building -
including the presence of bomb-sniffing
Weather
Today: Sunny; H 88, L 68
Wednesday: T-storms; H 86, L 66
Thursday: T-storms; H 86, L 68
for the officers’ safety and for everyone
else on campus’ safety,” Poarch said. “But
we didn’t know it was a bomb before,
and we don’t necessarily know now.”
No note or verbal threat accompa
nied the alleged bomb, and Poarch said
there are no suspects at this time.
While the SBI bomb squad was exam-
the time - why would there be anything
dangerous on campus?” he said. “With
all the construction on campus, I didn’t
think it was anything until I went back
later and saw tbe bomb squad.”
Parts of Davie Hall with windows fac
ing the road were evacuated, and students
were forced to walk around the building
to enter. “We thought it was a call or a
See DEVICE, Page 7
dogs.
But Basnight said it was impossible to pre
vent further bomb threats.
“There’s no way to stop this, if someone
calls in a bomb threat, you have to get out of
the building.”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
n-
ining the object,
Cameron Avenue
was cordoned off
from Raleigh Road
to near Old East
Residence Hall,
about 100 yards
from the object in
either direction.
Curious crowds
gathered at either
end to watch an
SBI robot examine
the device.
Ethan Denny, a
senior from Stokes
County, said he
passed within a foot
of the alleged bomb
on his way to class
at about 10:55 a.m.
Denny said he was
biking in the road
when he noticed a
piece of pipe.
“I didn’t think
much about it at