VOLUME 116, ISSUE 16
Scandal
impact
maybe
limited
Democrats look
beyond Wright
BY DEVIN ROONEY
ASSISTANT STATE ft NATIONAL EDITOR
The N.C. Democratic Party
hasn't been a stranger to scandal,
but parts members are confident
that the growing list of controver
sies and bruised reputations won't
be an issue in the May primary or
the general election.
The most recent blow to the parts
came when former Wilmington
legislator Thomas Wright, accused
of mishandling nearly $340,000 in
campaign and charitable donations,
was expelled from the N.C. House
of Representatives last week after
ignoring repeated calls to resign.
Chairman of the New Hanover
County Democratic Party Jim
Morgan said his constituents
were surprised and dismayed that
Wright refused to resign.
Many Democrats said most
of the allegations against Wright
solely implicate him. differentiat
ing his case from other challenges
to the party’s credibility, such as
last year’s botched special election
in Mecklenburg county and Jim
Black’s web of corruption that
came to light in 2005.
N.C. Rep. Rick Glazier, D-
Cumberland, chairman of the eth
ics committee that investigated
Wright, said he doesn’t believe that
the allegations against Wright and
his subsequent expulsion, the first in
North Carolina since 1880, will have
consequences for the legislature.
“1 don’t think that you’re going
to see any fallout on any sitting
legislator,” Glazier said.
Because the allegations Wright
faces were mostly independent
actions, they are less damning for
the legislature, Morgan said.
‘I think that it reflects only upon
him and any of the others who have
been involved in any wrongdoing,"
he said. ‘I do not think that it is
hurting that it’s going to hurt
the Democratic Party."
Glazier said Black's miscon
duct implicated the entire House
because of Black s leadership role
and the involvement of many other
officials.
“It certainly was an issue in the
2006 campaign,” he said. “I cer-
SEE DEMOCRATS. PAGE 5
Candidates readying for N.C. battle
BY CAROLINE DYE
STAfF WRITER
Barack Obama's presidential
campaign has an early lead in set
ting up campaign infrastructure for
the May 6 N.C. primary.
Obama's headquarters in Raleigh
has been operating for about a week,
said Katherine Lyons, a spokeswom
an for the N.C. campaign.
The N.C. headquarters is not
yet open to the public, but will be
within a week or two. A Chapel
Hill office at 504 W. Franklin St
officially opened Monday, Lyons
said, and the Obama campaign
intends to open more field offices.
The Clinton campaign has yet to
establish an N.C. base of operations,
although in a March 17 press release
the campaign named Averell “Ace”
Smith the N.C. state director. Smith
was involved in earlier victories in
California and Texas.
Heels for Hillary President
Amanda Vaughn said her group will
be canvassing and phone banking on
behalf on Clinton and plans to coor
CORRECTION
Due to an editing error,
Monday's front-page story, “UNC
slaughters hogs,” incorrectly states
the records of the two teams. North
Carolina is 34-2; Arkansas is 23-12.
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
01jr Sailu ®ar Mcrl
Repeat offenders plague system
BY SARA HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
Joe Buckner, chief judge of the
Orange Count)- District Court, calls
them “frequent flyers."
They are the ones he sees in his
courtroom most often repeat
offenders who come through the
system again and again.
A lack of programs to help
repeat offenders who struggle with
substance abuse or mental illness
es is a key reason why the same
people keep coming before the
UNC PROTECTS ITS ROOTS
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■ ■ exceptional historic, cultural or aesthetic value." The University campus has more
than 100 of these trees dotting the paths by which we walk daily.
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SOURCE UNC TASK FORCE ON LANDSCAPE HERITAGE AND PLANT DIVERSIt i DUiMAEGAN WALKER PHOTOS BY SAM WARD
dinate get-out-the-vote measures
with other N .G student groups.
“I don’t think (the Clinton cam
paign) realized how important
North Carolina is until the last
couple of weeks,” she said.
N.C. State University political
science professor Steven Greene
said he thinks that Clinton might
be campaigning with less urgency
to be able to say she w-asn’t putting
in her full effort.
“If you’re afraid you’re going to
bomb on a test, you may go out and
get drunk the night before," he said.
He also said the large N.C.
concentrations of black voters
and white-collar professionals in
the Triangle area seem to favor
Obama.
“Everybody has already put this
state in the Obama column,” he
said. “Winning in the primaries is
very much an expectations game.”
But a March 19 survey from
Public Policy Polling said Clinton
has cut into Obama's lead in North
Carolina in recent weeks.
City | page I
CASE GOES TO GRAND JURY
Demario James Atwater and Lawrence
Alvin Lovette both waived their right to
a probable cause hewing Monday. They
will continue to be held on first-degree
murder charges in Eve Carson's killing.
www.dailytarheel.com
courts, Orange-Chatham District
Attorney Jim Woodall said.
“There is just no community sup
port for these people," he said. “The
community thinks there is, but the
programs out there are underfund
ed and the mental health system is
essentially nonoperational.”
Both Lawrence Alvin Lovette
and Demario James Atwater, the
suspects charged with murder in the
March 5 shooting of Student Body
President Eve Carson, have previous
criminal convictions.
__ MM
DTWHANNAH SHARPE
Obama campaign volunteer David Tillery tells Chapel Hill resident
Charles Sune how to get involved at the Chapel Hill campaign location.
After leading by 4 percentage
points in a March 5 poll, Obama
now leads 44 percent to 43 per
cent in a poll with a margin of
error of 4.3 percentage points.
Clinton is the establishment
candidate, Greene said, and tends
HI
Without outside resources, repeat
offenders fall into a cycle of continu
ing criminal behavior, Woodall said
before Carson's death.
Of the individuals sentenced to
jail time in Orange County, 85 per
cent have a history of five or more
convictions, Buckner said.
, And each misdemeanor convic
tion raises harshness of sentencing,
said Caitlin Fenhagen. an assistant
public defender in Orange Count)’.
The offense levels range from
one to three, with three being the
to rely on top-down campaign
ing through local Democratic
forums.
In contrast he said Obama is
operating a grassroots campaign.
SEE PREPARATIONS. PAGE 5
sports I page 7
NCAA TOURNAMENT
The No. 1 seeded women's
basketball team will play Georgia
at 9 p.m. tonight in Norfolk, Va.,
for a chance at the Sweet 16. See
dailytarheel.com/marchmadness.
highest and receiving the more
serious punishments. It takes four
convictions to reach level three.
"Almost all repeat offenders are
a level three and are subject to the
strictest consequences.” Fenhagen
said.
The increased sentencing is
supposed to deter repeat crimi
nals, w'ho often can’t overcome
behaviors that lead to crimes in
the first place, and community
programs that would offer help
are underfunded.
Preservation guides growth plan
BY ANDREW RYAN COSGROVE
AND MEGHAN PRICHARD
STAFF WRITERS
Legend has it that William Davie, the principal founder of
the University, chose the location of UNC’s campus at the site
where the Davie Poplar now stands.
If the tree falls, the legend states, the University of North
Carolina system falls with it.
From UNC’s establishment to the present, trees and land
scaping have always played a prominent role at the University.
Even as the University continues to grow, so too have the
roots that connect the buildings and the landscaping.
While construction disturbs landscaping and the Univ ersity
expands. UNC officials are working to ensure that these his
torical roots and an environmental focus are maintained.
A historical perspective
When Eleanor Morris attended UNC. the campus ended
at South Road.
Her father attended the University in the early 1,4205. and
she followed in his footsteps, graduating in 1955.
“I live in the same house where I grew up, which is about
two blocks from the hospital," she said. “I walked to Kenan
Stadium and classes through the woods.”
Instead of gathering in the Pit. Morris and her friends spent
time at the Y court, the current location of the Campus Y.
But Morris said other features of the campus have remained
the same.
“1 think Rolk and McCorkle (places') haven’t changed that
much." she said. “I do think they’ve done a wonderful job trying
to maintain and preserve it even with construction."
It is these two quads that contain many historic trees, said
Tom Bvthell, University arborist.
For example, a persimmon tree located on Polk Place is
probably the remnant of a forest that once covered part of
North Campus.
Bvthell said he believes that the tree, which is out of line
with the oak trees planted later, stood along with horse chest
nut trees that students found useful.
“They would’ve fostered the tree." Bvthell said. "The stu
dents could’ve gone out there and picked fruit to eat."
In the early 1900s, William Coker arrived, establishing the
Botany Department and later. Coker Arboretum.
Peter White, director of the N.C. Botanical Garden, said Coker
might have used his personal funds to improve landscaping.
“The turn of the century was a time when the South was
beginning to assert its own identity." he said.
“(Coker) was trying to demonstrate that the southeastern
biodiversity that we have w as worthy of celebration."
SEE TREES, PAGE 5
Professor’s research
delves into addiction
BY COLIN CAMPBELL
STAFF WRITER
A UNC psychologv professor is
doing groundbreaking research
on how addictions to alcohol and
smoking affect the
FOCUS brain.
M QJI Charlotte
Boettiger has iden-
HH titled die neurolog
ical abnormalities
% that plague people
with substance
abuse disorders
and make quitting
difficult. The find-
RESEARCK ings could lead to
the development
of drugs for alcoholics that would
target those abnormalities.
“The study focused on trying to
identify- the brain circuits involved
in deciding on small rewards now
SEE ADDICTION, PAGE 5
this day in history
MARCH 25,1999...
Provost Richard Richardson misses
a trustee presentation after having
a heart attack the day before. The
news is on top of Chancellor
Michael Hooker’s cancer diagnosis.
TUESDAY. MARCH 25, 2008
Special courts, like the drug
treatment court and the resource
court, also deal hands-on with
the substance and mental health
issues repeat criminals often face.
The district courts use alterna
tive sentencing, giving criminals the
option of enrolling in a state-spon
sored program for substance abuse
or mental illness. Buckner said.
But these programs rarely yield
results, he said, because most crim-
SEE OFFENDERS, PAGE 5
DTH/E LYSSA SHARP
Psychology professor Charlotte
Boettiger shows the lab area
in Davie Hall where she does
research on addictions.
weather
O Sunny
H 59, L 40
index
police log 2
calendar 2
sports 7
opinion 8
games :. 11