2
THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2005
Military looks
to expand files
of student info
Some worry about
effects on privacy
BY WHITNEY ISENHOWER
STAfF WRITER
Social Security numbers, birth
dates and grade point averages of
high-school juniors and seniors, and
some college students will soon be
compiled into a Pentagon database.
The information already is avail
able in separate databases for the
four military offices the Army,
Navy, Air Force and Marines —and
has been collected periodically since
1982, said Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a
spokeswoman for the Pentagon.
E-mail addresses, ethnicity and
school subjects studied are among
the other information included in
the database.
Krenke said having informa
tion that is already available to
the government’s defense branch
in one place makes it easier for all
involved.
“We’re not duplicating effort,
and we’re saving taxpayer money,”
she said.
But others argue that such
information has never been com
piled into a database.
“One of the defenses is that there’s
already a database,” said Dane von-
Breichenruchardt, president of the
U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation. “I
don’t think that’s true.”
He said the only information
currently kept by the Department
of Defense in regard to military
recruitment is one’s draft registra
tion status and current address.
Critics of the database also
question whether gathering this
type of information is merely for
consolidation purposes.
“It’s designed to help them mar
ketjoining the military to students,”
said Jim Harper, director of infor
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mation policy studies at the CATO
Institute, a conservative think tank
based in Washington, D.C.
“Particularly with the dangers
involved in Iraq and Afghanistan,
it’s a little bit harder to get people
to join now.”
Krenke said this particular
list began in 2003 by the Joint
Advertising Market Research and
Studies branch of the department.
Krenke also said the only reason
Social Security numbers were col
lected was for accuracy purposes.
She said they were the most accu
rate way to make sure everyone is
correctly accounted for in the data
base and to avoid duplications.
She said the numbers would only
be distributed within the branch.
But critics worry that having that
much information about individuals
in one place could make it attractive
to computer hackers, or the govern
ment might share the information
with other companies.
“A database that big with that
many people is a target,” Harper
said.
But Krenke said officials do not
plan to distribute the information.
“According to the Federal
Register notice, it can be requested
by other organizations,” she said,
“but our intention is only to share
it with the military services.”
Krenke also said the database
is not mandatory, and those who
wanted to opt out of it could apply
to do so.
Despite the possibility of omis
sion from the database, UNC
senior Maggie Rechel, a political
science major, said she wonders
why the government would main
tain such a list.
“It’s unnecessary and an inva
sion of privacy.”
Contact the State (!) National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Leaders concerned by fire coverage
Officials uneasy
on bills binding
BY BRIANNA BISHOP
CIIY EDITOR
A missing item in the N.C.
House budget has caught the
eye of Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin
Foy and other municipal officials
throughout the state.
While funding for fire protec
tion for state-owned properties
—a request that was included in
Chapel Hill’s legislative agenda
made it into the governor’s budget
and N.C. Senate’s proposed budget
for 2005-06, it was left out of the
House budget.
“As those state institutions grow,
the ability of the host community
to provide fire protection is com
promised,” Foy said.
The $1 million a year that would
go into fire departments like
Chapel Hill’s would allow the town
to create four additional posts for
firefighters, Foy said.
Moratorium bill limps along in House
BY WHITNEY ISENHOWER
STAFF WRITER
More than five weeks after the
statewide moratorium on execu
tions was slated to come to a vote,
legislators say the bill’s future still
is up in the air.
The N.C. House moratorium
proposes a two-year halt on all
death penalty sentences ordered
before this year and a study to be
conducted to examine possible dis
crepancies in the system.
Since legislators delayed a vote
on the bill just before the June 2
crossover deadline, it has been
referred to four committees in
about a month.
Now the bill rests in the House
Judiciary I committee where the
bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Joe
Hackney, D-Orange, says he is
amending the bill.
Hackney, who chairs the com
mittee, wouldn’t say exactly what
changes he is making.
“Judiciary 1 is the proper place
News
“In Chapel Hill, our fire chief
said that we need 18 new firefight
ers in order to be able to provide
the level of service that is neces
sary,” he said.
Foy noted that though the
University is putting millions of
dollars into construction projects,
no extra funds are being allotted
to support fire protection.
At the legislative breakfast in
March, Foy indicated that the fire
department was underfunded by
about $500,000.
Chapel Hill is not the only com
munity that could be affected by
the loss.
Durham, Raleigh, Boone and
Wilmington are among some of
the towns that might feel this
impact.
Mayor Mel Cohen of
Morganton is working with Foy
to relaunch a campaign confront
ing the issue.
They are asking for municipal
officials and fire chiefs to contact
the representatives in hopes of
getting the funding into the final
to work on the substance of that
bill,” said Hackney.
“That’s the committee that con
sidered the first version, and it’s
the appropriate place to consider
the subsequent versions.”
Hackney said he is amend
ing the bill because it didn’t have
enough votes for passage.
The first bill narrowly passed
the committee by a vote of 8-6.
Though some feel the process
is taking more time than usual,
Hackney said amending and re
directing the bill to various com
mittees is a common procedure.
“I don’t think that it has been
delayed,” he said. “It’s been considered
in the normal course of business.”
But the number of bills brought
up during this legislative session
could have slowed the moratorium
bill’s process, said Rep. Bill Owens,
D-Camden.
“This year there’s been a greater
number of bills drafted than nor
mal,” he said.
“As those state institutions grow, the abil
ity of the host community to provide fire
protection is compromised.”
KEVIN FOY, MAYOR
budget.
The message they hope to
convey through this effort is that
they support the fire protection
increase include in the Senate and
governor’s budget.
The campaign began as an
effort on the parts of Foy, Cohen,
Greenville Mayor Don Parrott
and Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan
Jones to bring this issue to the
attention of the governor’s bud
get aide.
Foy said the purpose of the
campaign is to ensure that legisla
tors around the state understand
though this is a relatively small
amount of money, it is in fact nec
essary.
Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange,
said the item is now on the flagged
Though it has moved between
committees and sees future amend
ments, some lawmakers say the bill
could pass this session.
“I think it’s slim, but there’s a
chance of it passing,” said Rep. Jim
Crawford, D-Granville.
Crawford said he is a supporter
of the bill.
“I don’t want to put anybody to
death that’s not guilty,” he said.
In 2003 the N.C. Senate became
the South’s first legislative body to
approve a moratorium, but that leg
islation failed to pass in the House.
The exoneration of former death
row inmates Darryl Hunt and Alan
Gell called attention to possible prob
lems in the death penalty system.
Hunt spent 18 years in prison for
the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes
before a DNA test helped prove his
innocence.
Gell was given anew trial after
a judge found the N.C. Attorney
General’s office withheld evidence
from his 1995 trial, in which he
was found guilty of killing Allen
Ray Jenkins.
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list, so it can come back for con
sideration.
She said some representatives
questioned the funding because of
the benefits associated with towns
with many state-owned proper
ties.
Some officials, she said, thought
that because of those benefits, the
communities should be willing to
provide fire protection.
But she added that had she
been aware of that conversation,
she would’ve argued in favor of
the towns.
“This is an opportunity we don’t
want to let slip through our fin
gers,” she said.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
“I would have thought a case like
mine would make everybody say :
“We need to get this fixed. How did
this happen?’” Gell said.
House Speaker Jim Black, D- ’
Mecklenburg, has said that even;
if the moratorium doesn’t pass
he will create a panel to study the
death penalty. .:
Gell said the bill is probably in
the everyday thoughts of inmates.
“This moratorium study would ~
kind of be like the answer to my I
prayers if I were innocent and sit
ting on death row.” .
Contact the State (!) National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu. •
Sfyp (Tar Ibri :
P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 *
Becca Moore, Editor, 962-4086
Advertising 8i Business, 962-1163
News, Features, Sports, 962-0245
One copy per person; additional copies may be
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