WEEKLY SUMMER ISSUE
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Committee
Gives Nod
To Lottery
After failing repeatedly in
the legislature for 20 years, a
lottery referendum could be
on the ballot in November.
the Associated Press
RALEIGH - A House committee
narrowly approved a bill Tuesday to
allow voters to say in November
whether they want legislators to create a
state-run education lottery.
In a victory awaited for months by
Gov. Mike Easley and other lottery
boosters, the House Rules Committee
voted 15-13 to recommend the advisory
referendum to the full House.
Easley and pro-lottery organizations
have worked the phones in recent days
to get enough votes for Tuesday’s panel
vote and a floor vote that could come as
early as Wednesday.
Results of the vote were not available
as of press time early Wednesday.
“We’re close,” said the bill’s sponsor,
Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank. “It
could be any way. There’s a little bit of
jockeying for positions.”
The lottery question has been repeat
edly and unsuccessfully brought before
the General Assembly over 20 years.
Its chances started looking much
brighter when Easley, who had cam
paigned on a lottery platform, took
office in 2001 and the state budget fell
into disarray as the economy faltered.
This year, South Carolina started a
lottery, leaving Tennessee as the only
neighboring state without one.
The legislation before the committee
would ask voters on Nov. 5 to check yes
or no to, “North Carolina should have
an Education Lottery.” Whatever the
results, the General Assembly would
still have to approve a game for it to
become reality, possibly next year.
All but two Democrats on the com
mittee, Reps. Joe Hackney of Orange
County and Paul Luebke of Durham
County, voted for the legislation.
All but two Republicans, Reps. Cary
Allred of Alamance County and Wilma
Sherrill of Buncombe County, voted
against it.
House Speaker Jim Black, D-
Mecklenburg, stacked the committee
with three “floaters” - House members
who are authorized to sit on any com
mittee - who voted for the referendum
to provide the margin of victory.
The lottery question largely has been
a nonpartisan issue in years past, with a
coalition of Republicans and conserva
tive and liberal Democrats blocking any
legislation on moral and religious
grounds.
The debate has taken a political tone
in recent months as Democrats see a
referendum as a way to increase turnout
in a state with voting registration that
favors them.
A high turnout in November might
negate Republican gains that result
from redistricting.
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Alan Douglas Gates was arrested at 272;3 Orange
Chapel Clover Garden Church Road.
The business of the government is the business of the people.
John F. Kennedy
Revenue Debate Stalls House Budget
By Rohit Patel
Staff Writer
As the N.C. House of Representatives
concludes its second week of working
on a state budget, legislative leaders say
that several options have emerged to
raise additional revenue but that it is
doubtful if any have the votes to pass the
closely divided chamber.
The state Senate passed a budget on
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OWASA employee Ben Nichols measures the water level at Cane Creek Reservoir, which is about 11 feet below full. OWASA officials said Orange
County only has 131 days left of water usage, but University officials are not anticipating a problem.
Drought Could Cause Water Restrictions
By Peter Gilchrist
Staff Writer
The Orange Water and Sewer
Authority Board of Directors is sched
uled to meet today to consider a resolu
tion that will put residents in the area
under mandatory water restrictions.
On June 27, OWASA adopted a res
olution requesting voluntary water con
servation, but since then the available
supply has continued to decline.
OWASA officials are predicting the
county has only about 131 days of water
left. University Lake is more than 5 feet
below full, while the Cane Creek
Reservoir is about 11 feet below full.
These conditions are likely to force
OWASA to declare a stage one water
shortage, which could take effect Friday.
Orange County Man Confesses to Triple Homicide
The Associated Press
A man who had been ordered to stay away
from his family confessed to killing his daugh
ter, another woman and a 2-year-old boy,
sheriff’s officials said last week.
Alan Douglas Gates, 50, admitted Monday
that he went to his former home to confront
his estranged wife, Janet Clark Gates, because
he was angry after seeing her with another
man, Lt. Bobby Collins said Thursday.
Gates was arrested and charged with vio
lating a restraining order. While being driven
to the sheriff’s office in Hillsborough, he
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End of the Season
Gourmet food store A Southern
Season gears up to change venues.
See Page 5
June 20, and some House budget lead
ers have set a mid-July target for the
House to unveil its version of the bud
get.
Once the House approves a budget,
leaders from the two chambers must
compromise on one plan.
Members of the House have
expressed dissatisfaction with the Senate
plan - namely for its use of SBOO million
in one-time funds to fund permanent
“Stage one means several things, one of
which is limiting outdoor watering with
sprinklers to three days a week,” said
OWASA public affairs spokesman Greg
Feller. “More specifically, people with
odd-number addresses could water on
Monday, Wednesday or Friday and peo
ple with even-number addresses could
water on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday.”
In addition, stage one restricts the use
of water on sidewalks, driveways, cars
and buildings. It also explains that no
water will be served in restaurants
except on request. Citizens who violate
the regulations could be fined an as-yet
undetermined amount.
While stage one of the water conser
vation plan will limit residential water
See DROUGHT, Page 2
Agent K Returns
"Men in Black II" revisits alien
culture's cartoon comedy.
See Page 4
Volume 110, Issue 51
programs. Asa result, House members
have brought forth proposals for raising
revenue, ranging from eliminating cer
tain tax breaks to targeted tax increases.
Legislators would use the additional
revenue, as well budget cuts, to fill a $2
billion hole in this year’s state budget.
Some House members have also
complained that the Senate budget cut
too deeply into some human service
programs.
Drought Drapes North Carolina
OWASA officials are predicting North Carolina isn't the only Southern state experiencing a drought
that the county has only about 131 from Virginia to Georgia, it's been a hot, dry summer. Hurricane season
days of water left and officials could turn the dry spell around, and historic data suggests that there
might decide to declare a stage should be some improvement according to the Climate Prediction Center,
one shortage. If a shortage
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SOURCE: NORT H CAROLINA DROUGHT MONITORING COUNCIL AND THE CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER DTH/ADRIAL DALE
waived his right to remain silent and to have
an attorney present, then confessed to the
slayings, Collins said.
He was being held at Central Prison on
three counts of first-degree murder in the
shooting deaths of Valerie Michelle Gates, 24,
Cordae Shimara Lee, 21, and Lee’s 2-year-old
son, Kendall Alexander Dianis.
Gates is accused of killing his daughter less
than two months after he was accused of beat
ing her in their home in southwestern Orange
County.
“He said, ‘My life is over. I can’t spend my
life in prison,”’ Collins said. “He wanted us to
Rep. Warren Oldham, D-Forsyth, co
chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee, said he is not sure about
which proposal, if any, will emerge from
the House.
“There are a multitude of proposals
being debated on in the House,” he said.
“If we can get a consensus on any par
ticular plan or a combination of some, it
See BUDGET, Page 2
stop the car and let him escape so we could
shoot him.”
On July 1, Janet Gates, who secured a
domestic violence restraining order against her
husband June 11, called sheriff’s deputies to
escort her to the family home, said Orange
County Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass. Her daugh
ter had been receiving telephone messages
from her father, sojanet Gates thought her hus
band might be at the residence, the sheriff said.
Deputies James Riley and Anthony Cecil
escorted Janet Gates to her home, where they
found Alan Gates lying on the bed in his bed
room, a revolver by his right side. The
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Green Day sings a Familiar Tune on
it’s Bth Album
Thursday, July 11,2002
Raising Revenue
The state House is considering a variety of options to
raise the revenue it might need to balance the budget.
House Is Considering
• $330 million from withholding reimbursements to local
governments by allowing them to raise the sales tax
• sl6* million by raising the sales tax on cigarettes by
at least 25 cents
• SBS million from closing a tax loophole for banks
• SIBO million from closing a tax loophole that allows
manufacturers to pay less sales tax due to an SBO
sales tax cap on machinery
• $8.7 million by eliminating a tax credit that
tobacco companies get for exporting cigarettes
SOURCE: DTH RESEARCH DTH/STAFF
Tuition
Increase in
Fall Bills
UNC administrators might
have to send out new bills
in the fall if the General
Assembly changes tuition.
By Meredith Nicholson
University Editor
UNC-Chapel Hill Students opened
their mailboxes this week to find tuition
bills that included increases of 8 percent
for in-state students, 12 percent for out
of-state students and a S3OO campus-ini
tiated hike.
But these increases have yet to be
approved by the N.C. General
Assembly.
Rob Nelson, UNC-system associate
vice president for finance, said that
under state law, the UNC-system Board
of Governors is responsible for setting
tuition.
Nelson said that because the legisla
ture has not yet ruled on the BOG’s
tuition proposal, the tuition increases
stand as is. “That’s the board’s recom
mendation, and it’s being considered by
the General Assembly," he said.
The budget approved by the state
Senate included the tuition increases as
approved by the BOG, but it is still
unknown what changes, if any, the
House will try to make to the plan.
Dennis Press, UNC-CH controller,
said that tuition amounts are set by the
BOG and the General Assembly but
that the schedule for billing is set by
each individual university. The bills are
sent out at the same time each year and
are based on the best information avail
able at the time, he said.
Press said the University sends out
bills for tuition as early as possible -
even if the numbers are not yet finalized
- because officials want to give students
as much time as possible to pay or make
arrangements to pay.
Students who do not pay are subject
to cancellation so their seats can be
offered to other students, he said.
Press said that the billing cycle is on a
tight schedule and that it was important
that the bills be sent without waiting for
the final word from the legislature.
See TUITION, Page 2
deputies immediately arrested him, charging
him with violating the restraining order, which
prohibited him from visiting the residence.
As the deputies handcuffed Alan Gates,
Pendergrass said, Janet Gates discovered the
bodies in a pool of blood on a back bedroom
floor, and shouted, “He killed them! He killed
them all!”
Valerie Gates had been shot in the upper
chest, while her friend, Lee, and Lee’s son had
bullet wounds to the back, Pendergrass said.
Riley checked the victims' vital signs and
See GATES, Page 2