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10 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2004 Tobacco farms may see buyout THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SMITHFIELD An immedi ate buyout of the Depression-era tobacco price support system would stem further losses by farm ers facing more quota cuts and for eign competition, officials said Tuesday. North Carolina farmers have seen their income drop by SSOO million since 1997 and face an additional loss of S2OO million next year if an anticipated 30 per cent quota cut takes effect, N.C. Farm Bureau President Larry Wooten said at a hearing spon sored by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Without a buyout, the future will be “harsh and financially dev astating” to the tobacco industry, Wooten told a Senate agriculture subcommittee. Farmers’ leaf output, which is governed by quotas pegged to the tobacco industry’s demand, has been halved since 1997- Farmers began calling for a buyout in the late 19905, and tobacco state law makers have introduced 13 pro posals in Congress. The latest proposal, filed last month, would target about $9.6 bil lion from an existing excise tax on cigarettes to fund quota buyouts. Past buyout legislation has foundered on the condition that a buyout include a provision giving the federal Food and Drug Administration the power to regu late tobacco. That provision has been unpalatable to some tobacco supporters. Dole, a first-term Republican, E EASTERN FEDERAL easternfederal.com Oniine Ticketing Available 5 ;\v.u,EASTERNFEDERALcom ( MOVIES AT TIMBERLYNE Weaver Dairy at Airport Rd. \ 933-8600 J THE WHOlf UN YMDS* ESS Daily 3*o, 5:15,7*5, 935 EUABKHMTID'EDaiIy 3*0,5:00,795,9:15 I HEIiBOY* EB Daily 330,7:15,9:45 HOME OH THE RANGE* E Daily 3*5,5*5,7*5,9*5 MINNG WIS Daily 330,5*0; 720,920 SCOMYOOOt MORSTEKIMEMHED E Daily 3:10,5:10,7:10,9:10 a s- g a SHOWTIMES FOR TODAY ONLY! MATIN rSENIOf ALICE WALKER Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of THE COLOR PURPLE Free Public Lecture Wednesday, April 14, 7:30 p.m. Hill Hall at UNC-Chapel Hill nNI I h Ujr jm -. ; : v '|p ■*' mpr* . jpPjTL JB ** £ A Sponsored by THE FREY FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHED VISITING PROFESSORSHIP, THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH, THE MORGAN WRITER-IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM, & UNC’S DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH said her goal in holding Tuesday’s hearing near the heart of North Carolina tobacco country was to provide information for “skeptics” from other states so they get a true grasp of the urgent need for a buy out. “It is imperative that we accom plish a tobacco quota buyout this year,” she said. North Carolina, the nation’s top tobacco producer, would receive more than $6 billion over several years. Farmers and industry lead ers say the money could revive rural communities crippled by the downturn in agriculture and man ufacturing. “A buyout or even more importantly, the failure to pass a buyout would impact banks, agribusinesses, rural towns, and county governments,” U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C., said. “The entire infrastructure of rural North Carolina could be transformed by the billions of dollars of investment from buyout payments.” U.S. Rep. Richard Burr, a Republican, said money from a buyout could support about 11,000 jobs. The old program was created in the 1930s to give farmers price sta bility during the Depression. It now threatens to put them out of business by reducing their quotas without compensation and by pricing domestic tobacco out of the world market, officials said. The global supply of flue-cured tobacco is expected to rise this year, and U.S. exports are likely to decrease while imports from Brazil, China and other countries probably will rise. T1.,,| • 620 Market St. "" 1,11111111,1 r/r,'r Take 15/SOI South towards Pittsboro Exit Main St./Southern Village THE GIRL NEXT DOOR IE 1:45-{4:15)-7:10-9:40 HOME ON THE RANGE E1:00-3:00-(5:00)-7:00-9:10 SCOOE3Y 0002 IE 1:10-3:10-(5:1 Oj PRINCE AND ME E1:30-(4:00)-7:15-9:30 HELLBOYEa 7:20-9:45 HE |TAoir [ %BJQQ lOIQ IT A L|SEATtW 6 N.C. Medicaid office comes under fire THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH North Carolina’s Medicaid office made $1.2 billion in improper payments to dozens of hospitals over several years, according to a blistering state audit released Tuesday. The State Auditor’s Office, in a review of the Division of Medical Assistance, cited $414 million in federal dollars that could have to be paid back. The audit findings “represent a clear picture of a program that has been out of control,” deputy audi tor Wesley Ray said at a news con ference releasing the findings. The payments involved addi tional money distributed to hospi tals that serve many poor or unin sured patients through what’s called the disproportionate share 8 Ukrainian, Russian hostages freed in Iraq THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW Eight Ukrainian and Russian employees of an ener gy company who were kidnaped in Iraq were freed Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The workers for the Russian company Interenergoservis five Ukrainians and three Russians were seized from their residence Monday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said that no one had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. “Asa result of the efforts made during the past hours by the Russian side, all the specialists of Interenergoservis who were abducted on the evening of April 12 have been released,” the min istry said in a statement. It said the captives had returned to their residence in Baghdad and Do you need STORAGE? All sizes available Minutes from campus We have the Best Rates! ABC Self Storage Call 929*1133 News hospital program. The review found that state Medicaid officials made $240 mil lion in payments to hospitals that didn’t qualify for the money. The audit also said the division used an outdated formula to calcu late outpatient costs, resulting in $228 million in overpayments from 2000 to 2003. The division also knowingly used old data to calculate Medicaid inpatient costs to hospitals, resulting in an over payment of $l9O million. The state’s share for these costs were about 37 percent, with the remainder coming from the feder al government. Medicaid is the government’s health insurance program for poor children, the elderly and the dis abled. The federal, state and coun- none had been hurt. In Kiev, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Markian Lubkiyvskyi, said that five of the kidnapping victims were citizens of Ukraine. Ukraine has the fourth largest non-U.S. military contin gent in Iraq. Interenergoservis executive director Alexander Rybinsky said unidentified, masked gunmen had broken into a house in Baghdad where the company’s employees were resting Monday afternoon. He said the abductors released one of their nine victims immediately. “They put them all in a car and drove away,” Rybinsky said in a telephone interview earlier Tuesday. “The abductors haven’t put up any demands.” Rybinsky said the three Russians were: Sergei Konoplyov, EPA to announce state’s smog violators Plan meant to spur cleanup efforts THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH - The federal Environmental Protection Agency will announce Thursday which North Carolina counties violate new, tougher smog standards, beginning a three-year effort to clean up the state’s dirty air. With measures that officials hope jte Packing up for the summer 'wN & leaving campus life behind? f |gDon't throw it all away!!! ■ Donation Stations •'I BUt ore located in the ' *f use *** J ou can 1 lobby of a residence ' Pease rec Y cle V/ / hall near you! • Donate your unwanted items (clothing & shoes, non-perishable food, www.facunc.edu/Wasteßeduction SSSSSL, Tel: 919-962-1442 furniture and appliances) Daily Smokers ages 18 through 24 who are NOT thinking of quitting in the near future Earn a minimum of S7O for less than 3 hours of your total time by helping with a Duke/UNC study on smoking attitudes and behavior. Tasks involve completing short surveys and watching a 4-minute video. No classes, medications, or counseling involved. You are not being asked to join a smoking cessation program. If interested, and to see if you qualify, please call 919-956-5644 or email weemsoo2@mc.duke.edu IRB#: 0487 ty governments all pay into the program, but individual states operate the program. The audit could lead as many as 120 hospitals returning millions of dollars apiece. “In sheer magnitude, this is the most damaging audit that we’ve ever had to release,” said Ralph Campbell Jr., who has been state auditor for 11 years. One hospital, Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, and one of its attorneys had almost complete control over Medicaid payments to hospitals from 1997 to 2002, the audit found. The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicaid, has tightened controls involving the disproportionate share hospital program. It also Igor Frolov and Ilya Chernyshev. He did not name the Ukrainians. The Interfax news agency quot ed the Moscow bureau chief of the Arab television channel al-Jazeera, Akram Khasam, as saying that the Iraqi Communist Party had “held negotiations with the hostage-tak ers.” He said that he had received news of the hostages’ release from the party’s head of state security, who was meeting with them at their residence. Interfax quoted an unidentified Russian Foreign Ministry official as saying that the kidnapped work ers lived in a former kindergarten in Baghdad’s Dora neighborhood. The official said the neighborhood had been restive and served as a base for militants who were shelling coalition forces during recent fighting. will have a positive effect already being put in place, Division of Air Quality director Keith Overcash said Tuesday that state residents might see little immediate impact from the announcement. But if North Carolina’s most polluted areas including Charlotte, the Triangle and the (Ehr lathj (Ear Mrri took issue with several portions of the audit. “There is no valid basis for a finding that the division made (program) payments to ineligible hospitals,” HHS said. Still, Campbell said that man agement of its Medicaid reim bursements program is “seriously deficient” and that HHS should evaluate its leadership structure. “The division must regain full operational control of its program,” he said. HHS is negotiating with feder al Medicaid officials over the hos pital program and repayments. Campbell said it’s possible the state will pay back only a fraction of the questioned funds, while at least one other state has been forgiven altogether. Rybinsky said the attackers did n’t fire their weapons during what he described as a “lightning-quick raid.” “They didn’t beat our work ers,” he said. Dozens of foreigners from at least 12 countries have been kidnapped in recent days by insurgents. The Interenergoservis employ ees held been working to restore a power plant near Baghdad. In a statement released early Tliesday, Yakovenko, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, urged the abductors to release the Russian workers, adding that the power plant they were rebuilding was “vital for hundreds of thousands Iraqis.” He reaffirmed the ministry’s warning to all Russian citizens to refrain from visiting Iraq but did not immediately elaborate on any evacuation plans. Iliad cannot meet the clean-air standards, they eventually could face the loss of federal funds that they depend on for crucial high way projects. David Farren, lead attorney for the Chapel Hill office of the Southern Environmental Law Center, said he wonders how long the state’s bad air areas will be able to stay in compliance. “Being able to model attain ment on paper by 2007 does not really address the longer-term, 20- year perspective,” he said Tuesday. During the last 30 years, Farren noted, increases in the number of North Carolina drivers and the miles they travel have more than offset pollution reductions from •lower-emission cars and fuels. In the future, he said, the state will have to find ways to reduce the number of miles North Carolinians drive. Thursday’s announcement from the EPA is expected to label more than 500 counties nationwide and as many as 32 in North Carolina as “nonattaining.” In addition to Charlotte, the "Mangle and the Mad, Overcash said other areas expected to be on the list include Fayetteville’s Cumberland County and the Unifour counties of Catawba, Alexander, Caldwell and Burke that surround Hickory. The government is implement ing a tougher standard for ground level ozone, a precursor to smog, that the EPA adopted in 1997- The Clinton administration issued the more stringent requirement and a new standard for soot, or fine par ticles, out of concern that the old standards did not adequately pro tect vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and people with respiratory illnesses. Though Overcash’s division is responsible for submitting a statewide plan for cleaning up the air, local officials in many areas are considering what they can do. Local governments and activist groups have formed “early action compacts” in the Mad, the Unifour, Fayetteville and the mountains to identify measures that local areas can take, such as improving transit and alternative fuel car fleets, Overcash said. State officials also believe that changes already on the books will help bring most of the polluted areas in attainment by 2007- The Clean Smokestacks Act, passed by the legislature in 2002, is expected to substantially reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants. And by 2006, the state will be finished phasing in a tougher automobile inspections program to 48 counties across the state. Tougher federal standards for lower-sulfur gas, new car emis sions and diesel fuel that take effect in the coming years also should help, Overcash added. Farren said that while Clean Smokestacks was a big step for North Carolina, it does not address the problem of vehicle pollutants.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 14, 2004, edition 1
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