VOLUME 111, ISSUE 142
Council to nix Safe Light
BY CHRIS GLAZNER
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
After more than two hours of
debate, the Chapel Hill Town
Council voted Wednesday night
to terminate the town’s contract
with the company that operates
its red light camera program.
The 5-4 vote in favor of council
member Mark Kleinschmidt’s
petition to cancel the contract
ended several months of heated
debate about the cameras’ ability
to reduce traffic accidents.
Kleinschmidt said he had con
cerns about allowing a private
company to enforce violations
Atkins dieters
weigh pros,
cons of trend
BY MEGHAN GAMBLING
STAFF WRITER
When 22-year-old Jessica Parico gets up in the
morning, her typical breakfast includes an omelet
layered thick with cheese, ham and salami. And
she is losing weight.
Parico’s high-hit, high-protein meal is the prem
ise of the Atkins diet, which has gained populari
ty over the past few years and now is practiced by
an estimated 25 million Americans, according to
the Atkins Nutritionals Web site.
Not only has she lost weight since she began the
diet, but Parico also has flexed her Atkins muscle
while serving as the Carolina Dining Services’ mar
keting program manager.
Little has been done to bring Top of Lenoir up
to speed with the low-carbohydrate craze, but
Mainstreet Lenior has seen some changes.
In addition to Subway’s new thinly-sliced tor
tilla wraps that contain only eight grams of carbo
hydrates, the Ram Cafe has served items including
carb-free cheesecake and grilled salmon caesar
salad, Parico said.
As more and more Americans embrace the diet,
many restaurants and food chains have jumped on
the Atkins bandwagon.
Dan O’Malley, manager of Ruby Tuesday in
Northgate Mall in Durham, said the restaurant
chain was the first to come up with a low carbo
hydrate menu. “We wanted to set trends,” he said.
But at Spank/s on Franklin Street, co-manager
Kenny Carlson said that despite the influx of
Atkins dieters, the restaurant has done little to
SEE ATKINS, PAGE 4
BSM supports
West for SBP
BY IRIS PADGETT
STAFF WRITER
Lily West won the Black Student Movement’s
endorsement for 2004-05 student body president
Wednesday at the BSM’s annual forum, the first
elections forum of the year.
“It means a lot to me to get (BSM’s) endorsement
because I’ve worked with them in the past and
they’re a very active group,”
West said of what is regarded
as one of the most coveted
and influential endorsements.
IMIQ4
Promoting diversity on campus and expanding
unity among people of different races and cultures
dominated discussions among the eight candi
dates and BSM members.
Members of the BSM said they were looking for
a candidate who would represent the needs of
minorities and support truth in decision-making
and communicating with students.
“A lot of the things that she stands for on her
platform we feel will be beneficial to the UNC
SEE BSM, PAGE 4
DTH/JUSTIN SMITH
The Black Student Movement endorsed Lily West
(left) for UNC's next student body president
after the group's election forum Wednesday.
DIVERSIONS
CABIN FEVER
Check out tips to keep warm and fight
boredom during winter weather PAGE 5
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
01tp Satin (Bar Mrrl
traditionally handled by police.
“I have great difficulties with
the mechanization and privatiza
tion of police functions,” he said.
Council member Cam Hill,
who voted in favor of removal,
said he shared worries about the
motives of Affiliated Computer
Services, the company that runs
the Safe Light program.
“Their job is to make money,”
he said. “Safe driving would be
bad for business.”
ACS, which invested about
$400,000 in the cameras, collects
96 percent of the SSO fines issued
to red light runners at certain
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DTH/BRENT CLARK
Raul Jacinto (front) of Carrboro waited in line for more than four hours with many other Hispanics outside the Department
of Motor Vehicles in Carrboro on Wednesday morning in order to obtain new licenses before the Feb. 2 deadline.
Immigrants facing
new license obstacles
DHS to limit driver's license access to US. residents as of Feb. 2
BY EMILY VASQUEZ
STAFF WRITER
In the past week, Carrboro resident
Maria Elleria has tried to get her
driver’s license four times.
By 8 a.m. Wednesday, on her fifth
visit to the Department of Motor
Vehicles offices at Carrboro Plaza,
Elleria couldn’t take the below-freezing
temperatures anymore.
Shivering, she left her husband in
the long line and headed back to their
car to warm up.
Elleria, like many Hispanics in the
state, is rushing to beat a Feb. 2 dead
line.
On that date, new DMV procedures
designed according to Recommenda
tions from the Department of
Homeland Security, will require that
driver’s license applicants prove they
are legal U.S. residents.
INSIDE
EXTERMINATED
The ''Novarg" e-mail virus, which crippled
computers nationwide is dying out PAGE 2
www.dailytarheel.com
intersections around town. In ter
minating its contract, the town
does not expect to lose money.
About a dozen people spoke to
the council before the vote, most
of them in favor of the cameras.
Supporters argued that stop
ping accidents trumped other
concerns about the program.
“Our town staff is truly in
charge of the citations,” said
council member Edith Wiggins,
who voted to keep the contract.
“We have not lost discretionary
power to mechanization.”
The vote came on the heels of a
public relations blitz by camera
Christened Operation Stop Fraud
and made public Dec. 30, the program
will require applicants to present a fed
eral- or state-issued identification or
an international passport validated by
the federal government in order to
receive a driver’s license.
Bill Jones, spokesman for the N.C.
Department of Transportation, said a
driver’s license is more than just a per
mit to drive. “A driver’s license is used
for identification purposes,” Jones said.
“People who look at those licenses need
to be sure they are who they say they
are.”
To ensure that drivers’ licenses are
awarded based on legitimate docu
mentation, IDs from other countries,
except Canada, will be rejected.
Hispanics, who now extensively
populate the "Mangle, previously relied
on documents such as the Matricula
supporters in the past week,
which included a press confer
ence as well as a forum with rep
resentatives of ACS.
The cameras were approved in
late 2002, but last November’s
elections shifted the balance on
the council.
Hill and Sally Greene replaced
Flicka Bateman and Pat Evans,
who had both voted for the cam
eras.
“Cameras should be a last
resort, and they weren’t,” said
Greene, who argued in favor of
other methods of reducing red
light running.
SPORTS
TIGHT VICTORY
The Tar Heels pull out a home win against
N.C. State in a close matchup PAGE 9
Her comments echoed points
made by Will Raymond, a local
activist who has led resistance to
the cameras.
Addressing the council,
Raymond presented a lengthy list
of alternative policies, along with
evidence that the cameras do not
reduce violations.
By the end of the meeting,
council members affirmed their
commitment to improve traffic
safety, and many expressed inter
est in alternative measures.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
Consular, an ID card issued by the
Mexican government.
Damian Ariza Cortes, who arrived at
the DMV at 5 a.m. Wednesday, said he
resents the new restrictions.
“We are not from Iraq,” Cortes said.
“This will not keep Hispanics from
driving, and it will not stop terrorists.”
Cortes, who works as a painter in
Chapel Hill, said he has lost a week’s
wages while trying to obtain a driver’s
license for his wife. The Carrboro DMV
office was closed Monday and Tuesday
because of snow. Cortes came anyway,
hoping it would open later in the day.
Cortes, like many waiting in line
Wednesday, said DMV employees have
not always treated him and his wife
with respect.
“It’s an abuse of authority,” he said.
SEE LICENSES, PAGE 4
THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2004
Fate of
Olympic
sports in
question
Calif, bill could alter
all athletic funding
BY DANIEL BLANK
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Most mornings when the rest of the
campus is asleep, Dan Vick swims laps
in Koury Natatorium.
After two hours in the pool, the sen
ior swimmer goes to class and then
returns for a few more hours of prac-
STUDENT ATHLETES'
BILL OF RIGHTS
A three-part series
examining how California
legislation might threaten
the future of the NCAA
Today; Impact on UNC
nonrevenue sports
job,” Vick said.
It is this sentiment that brought
about the creation of California Senate
Bill 193, or the Student Athletes’ Bill of
Rights, as it is more commonly known.
Proponents of the bill argue that stu
dent-athletes, because of their larger
than-usual time commitment, should
be entitled to stipends that cover costs
of attending college that an athletic
scholarship does not.
NCAA rules prohibit stipends for
student-athletes, and if the bill passes,
it would force the California schools to
revoke their membership unless the
NCAA alters its restrictions.
If the NCAA were to change its rules,
the sudden passage of the legislation on
the other side of the country would
have a profound impact at UNC.
Of the many questions that have
arisen from the bill’s introduction, the
biggest is just who would receive these
payments.
“Who knows? They don’t know, they
don’t care,” said Betsy Stephenson,
UCLA associate athletics director, of
the legislators who drafted the bill.
Most participants in Olympic sports
such as swimming agree that revenue
athletes should be first in line to receive
payments but also say these athletes
shouldn’t be the only ones in line.
“Well, those sports are making
money, but I think student-athletes are
student-athletes,” said North Carolina
volleyball coach Joe Sagula. “They all
put in the same amount of time, they
deal with the same sacrifices.”
If the bill is interpreted the way
Stephenson and other California ath
letic directors view it, then only athletes
in revenue sports, football and men’s
and women’s basketball, would receive
stipends. This in itself would create
tremendous Title IX headaches for ath
letic departments across the country,
particularly UNC’s.
“I don’t know if you could (give
stipends to) 98 males and just 14 or 15
females,” said Dick Baddour, UNC
director of athletics. “Given the popu
lation we have on our campus, its puts
male sports at serious risk.”
Some in the administration are not
even sure if Title IX would apply to
stipends.
“I don’t have the wildest idea,” said
Larry Gallo, UNC senior associate
director of athletics. “I don’t even know
if Title IX would encompass that arena.
... If I pay 50 men athletes, do I have to
pay 50 women athletes?”
But Michael Mistretta, a legislative
aide to the bill’s author, Calif. Sen.
Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles, said the
language of the bill calls for all athletes
to benefit.
If it is taken this way, even more
questions would be raised.
The biggest of them all, locally,
would be if UNC, which fields 28 varsi
ty teams, could maintain its program in
its current form if it had to supply an
extra $2,000 to $3,000 to every athlete
on scholarship.
“It would jeopardize the broad-based
program we have,” Baddour said. “I’m
not sure we’d be able to sustain the pro
gram at the current level.”
This could mean cutting programs,
and wrestling coach C.D. Mock said he
knows full well that his sport is often
SEE NCAA, PAGE 4
WEATHER
TODAY Sunny, H 47, L 28
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SATURDAY Sunny, H 48, L 22
tice. He also has to
find time to finish
his homework.
“Being a stu
dent-athlete, you
have regular class
concerns plus you
have practices and
competitions, so
you really don’t
have time for a
o