VOLUME ill, ISSUE 93
Nuclear plant passes NRC probe
DTH/ANDREW SYNOWIEZ
The Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant was cleared by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission after an investigation regarding unscheduled reactor shutdowns.
Council
sees little
student
interest
Students rarely
seek local office
BY LAURA HIRST
STAFF WRITER
While the number of students
enrolled at the University is equiv
alent to about half the population
of Chapel Hill, only one under-
graduate has
ever served on
the Chapel Hill
Town Council.
In 1991,
Mark Chilton,
then a 21-year
old senior,
MUNICIPAL
BE
ELECTIONS
became the youngest person ever
elected to public office in North
Carolina. In 1973 law student Gerry
Cohen became the first student
elected to the Chapel Hill council.
This year, senior Mike McSwain
is drawing political attention back
to students by competing for one
of the four open council seats.
“When I filed for office, every
voter in Chapel Hill would have
said I was the least likely to win,”
Chilton said. “Because of what I did,
everybody has got to take Michael
McSwain a lot more seriously.”
Chilton said he was successful
because he did not focus purely on
student issues such as the noise
ordinance or open container law.
Despite a voter registration
drive and shuttles running to vot
ing sites, Chilton estimated that
only about 600 students voted for
him that year. That was still
enough because he beat the candi
date in fifth place by 463 votes.
This year’s voter registration
drive, spearheaded by student gov
ernment, registered nearly 2,3(j0
students to vote in Orange County.
Although it was the biggest stu
dent registration drive in University
history, council member Mark
Kleinschmidt, who worked on
Chilton’s campaign, said it is still
low when compared to the
University’s total enrollment.
Even 10 percent of the regis
tered students actually voting
would be a victory, he said.
He said Chilton won because he
was able to reach out to the town
for the majority of his 3,012 votes.
“There really isn’t such a thing as
a student vote because so many stu
dents don’t believe they’re impor
tant,” Kleinschmidt said.
Council member Pat Evans said
she thinks a student would be “a
breath of fresh air” for the council.
But Jeffrey Obler, a Chapel Hill
resident since 1968, said older res
idents might doubt a student’s con
cern for schooling and tax issues.
Zack Medford, a junior at N.C.
State University, lost his bid for a
seat on Raleigh’s City Council ear
lier this fall. He said he spent
about 75 percent of his time talk
ing to students but would change
SEE CANDIDATES, PAGE 4
INSIDE
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DTH PHOTOS/LEAH LATELLA
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge speaks Monday afternoon at the Coach K and Fuqua School of Business
Conference on Leadership at Duke University. Below: Former NBA player David Robinson (left) speaks with Ridge.
DEFINING LEADERS
BY ELLIOTT DUBE
ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
DURHAM While Tom Ridge served as an infantry
staff sergeant in Vietnam, his father sent him one letter per
day, including a play-by-play account of the Super Bowl.
Since then, Ridge has served in Congress and as gov
ernor of Pennsylvania and now serves as secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security.
As the keynote speaker at the Coach K & Fuqua
School of Business Conference on Leadership at Duke
University, he told an audience Monday about his main
source of inspiration in becoming a leader.
“No man had a more profound effect on who I am and
what I’ve accomplished than my father,” he said.
He said the essence of leadership is very personal and
is “really about what you make it and how you choose to
define it.” True leaders learn to enjoy facing challenges
and not to be encumbered by them, he added.
In his speech, Ridge referred occasionally to the Duke
men’s basketball team, especially coach Mike Krzyzewski.
While titles alone generally don’t convey leadership,
Ridge said, “Coach K” is one of the few names that com
mands immediate respect.
He said former Duke star Christian Laettner, by hit
ting a now legendary shot against the University' of
Kentucky in 1992, proved to be a good team leader by
recognizing his status as Krzyzewski’s go-to player.
Ridge also pointed to leadership on a larger scale,
commending President Bush for supporting the war on
terror. Ridge said that the president has demonstrated a
bold kind of leadership that has been appropriate for the
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LOCAL GROUP CONCERNED PROBLEMS
WILL PERSIST DESPITE NRC FINDINGS
BY DAN SCHWIND
STAFF WRITER
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
cleared Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant
of all operational infractions after investiga
tions into unscheduled reactor shutdowns.
According to a report released Friday, the
NRC thought the plants internal investiga
tion of the shutdowns, or trips, was adequate
and required no additional action.
“We were generally satisfied with their
identification of the problems,” said Roger
Hannah, public affairs spokesman for the
NRC. “There is no definite timetable (to fix
problems), but most of the improvements
have already been put into effect.”
The inspection, conducted Sept. 15 to 19,
RIDGE SPEAKS AT DUKE
situation and that Bush has recognized the need to “go big.”
Prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, collecting 180,000 gov
ernment employees and forming the Homeland Security
Department would have been “intellectually provocative,” Ridge
said. But the agency has been successful in disrupting terrorist
networks in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, he added.
The safety of the United States should be the priority of every'
state, city, neighborhood and home, he said. But Ridge said his
department has much more work to do in securing the nation.
In a press conference, he addressed questions about a Guilford
College student who told officials that he had placed banned
SEE RIDGE, PAGE 4
was a supplement to the annual evaluation
and was sparked by the plant’s four trips
between May and August.
It was designed to examine “problem iden
tification, root cause and... corrective actions
(the plant has taken),” the report stated.
According to the report, Carolina Power
& Light Company, the licensee and owner of
Shearon Harris, “took prompt corrective
action” to repair or replace equipment
directly involved in the incidents.
Jim Warren, executive director of the North
Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction
Network, said he is not convinced that the
report will end the plant’s problems. “There’s
not a clear indication that the problem has
been solved,” Warren said.
SPORTS
KILLER MOVES
UNC libero Caroline deßoeck scored the game
winning kill in game two against Duke. PAGE 7
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2003
Warren said that despite the evaluation,
he thinks more must be done to figure out
the exact cause of the trips and how to stop
future ones.
“This plant has 10 times the industry aver
age (of trips)," he said. “The average is one
(trip) per 27 months.... Shearon Harris has
had eight in 16 months.”
N.C. WARN’s biggest concern remains the
plant’s cooling system, which was not
involved in any of the trips. The group is
somewhat concerned, however, that shut
downs could affect the cooling systems and
the cooling pools outside for spent rods.
“(The investigation) is the kind of thing
that brings that problem back into focus,”
Warren said.
The investigation was the latest of several
examinations this year focusing on the plant’s
SEE NUCLEAR, PAGE 4
Student
charged in
air breach
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. The Transportation
Security' Administration said it will make changes to
ensure potential threats to aviation security are
flagged and investigated earlier.
The moves are the result of actions by a 20-year-old
student who was able to sneak box cutters and other
banned items past security checkpoints and onto com
mercial planes. Nathaniel Heatwole, a junior at
Guilford College in Greensboro, said he did so to
expose holes in aviation security.
He was charged with taking a dangerous weapon
aboard an aircraft and w as released without bail for
a preliminary hearing Nov. 10.
Heatwole sent the TSA an e-mail identifying him
self and outlining what he had done, even leaving a
phone number for authorities to call. But the items he
had hid on two Southwest Airlines planes weren't
found for almost five weeks.
“No one needed to connect the dots, TSA just need
ed to call back the college student,” said Rep. Ed
Markev, D-Mass., senior Democrat on the Select
Committee on Homeland Security.
TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said the TSA is
reviewing procedures to see what can be improved.
“Following an event like this, the results usually
include adjustments and improvements in the proce
dures,” he said.
The TSA Contact Center was set up in May as a
clearinghouse for communications. When an overt
threat is received, operators are trained to notify a
TSA investigator or security official, who then decides
what to do with it for example, refer it to the FBI,
Hatfield said.
The center fields about 5,700 complaints, queries,
compliments and threats each day. Heatwole’s e-mail
did not fall into the “overt” category because he never
SEE HEATWOLE, PAGE 4
Locals work
to remedy
health woes
BY EMILY VASQUEZ
STAFF WRITER
Fifteen hundred Hispanic residents of the Triangle
region traveled to Eastwav Elementary School in
Durham on Oct. 11 with one thing in mind: their
health.
Access to health care in the United States has been
a hot topic for years, but the response to El Centro
Hispano’s 2003 Latino Health Fair demonstrated that
the issue is of particular concern among Hispanics in
this region.
The Hispanic community faces significant barriers
to health care accessibility. At the same time, they are
at increased risk of disease and injury due to a wide
spread lack of preventative care, increased levels of
poverty and frequent exposure to hazardous labor.
Ivan Parra, former director of El Centro Hispano,
identified the key obstacle to health care among
Hispanics as a lack of knowledge about the system.
“Many people come from rural areas where there
are antiquated health systems," he said. “They don’t
know where to go or what can wait to be treated.”
Community leaders are working to raise aw'areness
through events such as the Latino Health Fair.
How'ever, once Hispanics become more “health care
literate," they face the question of how to pay for serv-
SEE HEALTH CARE, PAGE 4
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