Daily sor Mpri
WORLD BRIEFS
Bush administration might
ask for more than SB7B
WASHINGTON, D.C . - Vice
President Dick Cheney hinted
Sunday that the Bush administra
tion will seek more money next
year than the additional SB7 bil
lion already requested to pay
mainly for postwar costs in Iraq.
He also said the administration
does not know when the U.S. mil
itary presence in Iraq will end.
I don’t think anybody can say
with absolute certainty at this
point,” Cheney said on NBC’s
“Meet the Press."
Amid an increasing U.S. casual
ty count in Iraq and continuing
attacks and other forms of resist
ance, the administration has faced
criticism for its postwar strategy.
Democratic presidential candi
dates and others have said too lit
tle planning was done on how to
rebuild the country and how to
pay for it.
But anew poll shows the U.S.
public clearly is uncomfortable
with President Bush’s initial
request for an additional SB7 bil
lion for Iraq.
The ABC-Washington Post poll
found that six in 10 oppose the
increased spending.
The poll released Sunday shows
that 61 percent oppose spending
the SB7 billion in addition to the
billions in earlier spending
Congress provided for the war.
Congress approved $79 billion in
April for the Iraq operation.
A slight majority, 51 percent,
opposed the SB7 billion in earlier
polls that had asked simply
whether or not they approved that
request for Iraq.
Asked how the government
should pay for the SB7 billion if it
is approved, four in 10 said elimi
nation of recent tax cuts; almost
three in 10, 28 percent, said by
cutting spending; and two in 10,
19 percent, said to increase the
budget deficit.
Powell confident freedom
will develop in postwar Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq Secretary
of State Colin Powell said Sunday
that he is convinced “the winds of
freedom are blowing’ across Iraq
but acknowledged the possibility
that terrorists are trying to make
their way into the country and
sabotage the process toward self
rule.
Powell spent 12 hours in talks
with the team of U.S. officials
guiding Iraq in the postwar period
and with the U.S.-appointed Iraqi
Governing Council.
On his first visit to the nation
that has dominated his attention
since the early days of the Bush
administration, Powell attended a
Baghdad City Council meeting,
met with Foreign Minister
Hoshyar Zebari and joined the
U.S. administrator for Iraq, L.
Paul Bremer, at a joint news con
ference.
He described impressive moves
toward self-government and
seemed invigorated by what he
heard as he made his rounds.
Israeli official says Arafat
assassination solid option
RAM ALLAH, West Bank -
The second-ranking official in the
Israeli government said Sunday
that killing Yasser Arafat is an
option as thousands of Palestinians
took to the streets across the West
Bank and Gaza Strip promising to
protect their leader.
Israel blames Arafat for block
ing peace efforts and preventing a
crackdown against militants who
have carried out two suicide
bombings in the last week.
Vice Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert said Sunday that killing
Arafat is a possibility along with
expelling him or keeping him in a
siege that would “isolate him from
the world.”
Olmert’s comments have not
been part of any official govern
ment statement.
CITY BRIEFS
Town Council to hold LUMO
public hearing tonight
The Chapel Hill Town Council
will host a public hearing at 7 p.m.
today to consider a text amend
ment to the Land-Use
Management Ordinance.
The amendment would allow
the reservation of identified
school sites which are the subject
of proposed Site Plan Review or
Special Use Permit development
applications.
CALENDAR
Today
7 p.m. An information ses
sion for students considering an
economics graduate degree will be
held in 103 Gardner Hall.
An Economics Club meeting
will be held immediately after the
information session.
Compiledfrom
staff and wire reports.
Commission drops executive post
Directors salary large part of budget
BY RYAN C. TUCK
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
Downtown Commission officials
announced last week that the posi
tion of executive director, which
Robert Humphreys has held for 13
years, will be dropped from their
organization.
Humphreys’ last day, Sept. 20,
will fall just a few weeks prior to dis
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DTH/ALLISON MONEY
Off N.C. 86 in Orange County, Vaughn Compton raises these chickens in an effort to increase profits after the tobacco
industry came under fire in 1996, Diversification has been essential due to major changes in the agriculture industry.
Local farmers adapt
Industry changes force diversification
BY STEPHANIE JORDAN
STAFF WRITER
Every’ day Vaughn Compton wakes
up before 5 a.m. to do a job he says is
underappreciated, one that will never
make him rich.
And Compton says he loves it.
Compton is a tobacco and poultry
farmer who lives and works just off
N.C. 86 in Orange County.
Tobacco was his biggest cash crop
until 1996, when the cigarette indus
try came under fire. Since then, he’s
gotten into the poultry business. “The
chicken houses compensate for loss
in tobacco,” he said.
Compton is under contract with
Allen Farms, the 13th largest poultry
farm in the nation. He raises about
Theme houses offer diversity
Housing options
will be examined
BY CAROLINE LINDSEY
SENIOR WRITER
Sonia Wilson loves Germany,
but her status as a full-time student
leaves little time for trips there.
Thanks to UNC theme housing,
though, Wilson, a junior, has the
next best thing: She lives on a hall
with 30 people who share her pas
sion.
She couldn’t be happier than in
the German House, located on the
fifth floor of Carmichael Residence
Hall. But she said good theme
housing programs can be fleeting.
“I think a great deal of the qual
ity of the programs depends on the
coordinators,” Wilson said. “It also
depends on how enthusiastic the
people are.”
The German House isn’t alone.
The University's eight other theme
housing programs have little diffi
culty recruiting students, but other
problems leave room for improve
ment.
Allison McNeill, coordinator of
Top News
cussions between the commission
and the Chapel Hill Town Council
over the possibility of creating an
economic development commission
specifically responsible for the
downtown business sector.
The mayor’s Task Force on
Downtown Development had rec
ommended the creation of this
organization after evaluating the
ig
A STATE !
OF DISTRESS
A four part series
examining the future
of North Carolina's
major industries 1
Today: Agriculture <
Tuesday: Furniture
Wednesday: Textiles '
Thursday: Tobacco t
52,000 chickens.
Compton has
had to expand, in
part, because the
states agriculture
industry has taken
a major hit recently.
Experts say
Compton and
other farmers are
pursuing a profes
sion that simply is
not as viable as it
was a decade ago.
Inclement weather, globalization and
technology are just some of the fac
tors contributing to the change.
To diminish the potential for loss,
farmers have moved away from spe-
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DTH/ELSPETH CALLAHAN
Senior Laure Almairac, who lives in German House on the fifth floor of
Carmichael Residence Hall, reads the cartoon Asterix in German.
the Women’s Perspective program
on the first floor of Cobb Residence
Hall, can attest. McNeill, a junior
religious studies major, said low
morale has affected the quality of
the program in only its third week.
“My experience has been that a
status of downtown business and its
recent overturns and closings.
Orange County already has an
economic development commis
sion, but such a body had never
formally existed for the downtown
area.
The current Council on a
Sustainable Community will exam
ine the positive and realistic aspects
of that type of commission.
Humphreys has been a resident
of Chapel Hill for 35 years and was
cialization. making them less depend
ent on the success of a single crop.
“A lot of farmers have diversified
because they’ve seen what's happen
ing (with crops like) tobacco, peanuts
and cotton," said Steven Leath, asso
ciate dean for research in the College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences at
N.C. State University.
For the farmers who choose to stay
farmers, there are still obstacles.
Weather is perhaps the greatest
factor. A persistent drought peaked in
severity in 2002, followed by a rela
tive deluge in 2003.
“The weather was absolutely terri
ble (this year),” Compton said. “Sixty
five to 70 inches of rain has been
dumped on us since January.”
Globalization also has contributed
SEE AGRICULTURE, PAGE 7
lot of people figure out that theme
housing is one of the only ways to
get on Mid or North Campus,”
McNeill said. “Even if they give a
decent interview, I find that they’re
SEE HOUSING, PAGE 7
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2003
responsible for much of the success
of the downtown commission, said
Charles House, the commission’s
board chairman.
The decision ultimately was
made because Humphreys’ salary
accounted for nearly half of the
commission’s working revenue.
The commission is funded by a
tax on downtown property which
creates about $60,000 for the
Downtown Commission annually.
The organization’s past respon
Johnny Cash
leaves legacy
that spans
genres, time
BY MICHAEL PUCCI
ASSISTANT ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Music legend Johnny Cash died at 3 a.m. Friday in
a Nashville hospital from complications of diabetes,
resulting in respiratory failure. He was 71.
His death was hardly a surprise: The music icon’s
health had been deteriorating for years.
Still, the announcement of his passing has led to
an outpouring of sentiment and appreciation by
everyone familiar with his towering body of work.
“He’s one of the great independent, persistent and
consistent voices in country music,” said David
Whisnant, whose English and folklore classes at the
University used Cash and his music in the curriculum.
Cashs place in music history is secure. The public
first heard him when Sam Phillips signed Cash to his
new label, Sun Records, where he was a labelmate of
Elvis Presley. Decades later, the “Man in Black”
became one of only two musicians to be inducted into
both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. Presley is the other.
In between, he recorded more than 1,500 songs.
His most popular included “I Walk the Line,” “Ring
of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues.”
Jocelyn Neal, who teaches courses on the history
of country music, said his ability to bridge genres was
one of Cash's greatest achievements. “So many of his
recordings were done w-ith just him and his guitar,”
she said. “It brought recognition to himself and the
song, with minimal studio production.”
William Ferris, senior associate director of the
UNC Center for the Study of the American South,
said Cash represented the daily struggle of the work
ing man. “His music and persona included a vulner
ability and a sense of the vicarious nature of life,” he
said. “His audiences understood that.”
Cash, whose wife, June Carter Cash, died in May,
SEE CASH, PAGE 7
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COURTESY OF COLUMBIA RECORDS
Seventy-one-year-old musician Johnny Cash died in
Nashville, Tenn., Friday morning due to complica
tions of diabetes that resulted in respiratory failure.
Officials divided over
school merger plan
BY NICK EBERLEIN
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
Orange County officials will
wrestle with anew wrinkle in an
already contentious issue tonight.
According to a report prepared
by county staff, a merger between
the Orange County and Chapel
Hill-Carrboro school systems
would increase the property tax
rate for Orange County residents
to 17 cents per SIOO.
But Chapel Hill and Carrboro
denizens actually would pay less,
and residents of the current coun
ty district alone would bear the
added burden.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro residents
already pay a special district tax of
20 cents per SIOO that is ear
marked for local schools. Under a
merged system, this tax would be
voided, and those who live in the
Chapel Hill-Carrboro school dis
trict would experience a 3-cent net
decrease in the yearly rate.
Because of the special district
tax. Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools
receive an extra sl2 million on top
of what the county allocates them.
sibilities have been serving as a
contact for visitors, prospective
businesses and brokers from out
side the negotiation process.
Officials now want to establish
an independent economic devel
opment commission that will have
equal representation and input
from the town and University.
The possibility of creating such a
commission will be determined in
SEE HUMPHREYS, PAGE 7
State law mandates that, in the
event of a merger, per-pupil spend
ing in the new system must be
equal to the higher-funded district
Commissioner Moses Carey ini
tiated the talks in January and touts
a merger as the only viable option to
ensure educational equity.
“We owe every child in this
county a fair chance,” Carey said.
“(County system residents) will pay
more, but they will benefit more.”
Such monetary concerns have
dominated the merger talks and
undercut a focus on improved edu
cation, said Gloria Faley, vice
chairwoman of the Chapel Hill-
Carrboro Board of Education.
“I have yet to find out how this
will benefit education,” Faley said.
“If this is a money issue, if you only
want to equalize funding, this is
possible without merger.”
She said a district schools tax for
county system residents was pro
posed to the commissioners a few
years ago but was rejected.
The Orange County Board of
SEE REPORT, PAGE 7
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