VOLUME 116, ISSUE 101
university | page 7
DIM LIGHTS
McCorkle Place lamps give off
less light because of concern
about their effect on plants and
to preserve atmosphere,
students learn on lighting tour.
SportS | page 9
WOMEN'S TENNIS
A win Monday by doubles
team Sophie Grabinski and
Sanaz Marand meant the first
regional doubles title in the
history of the UNC program.
university | page 7
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Spoken-word artists performed
Tuesday at an event sponsored
by the criminal justice action
and awareness committee.
State | page 10
ON THE ISSUES
See where the candidates for
N.C. governor stand on the
issues of the economy.
seeking your views
The Daily Tar Heel will run
reader-submitted endorsements
of candidates on Election Day.
Write to dthedit@gmail.com,
word limit 100.
22 feus
m nr
ELECTION
COUNTDOWN
4
days left of early and one-stop
voting. For Orange County
locations and times visit
co.orange.nc.us/elect/
onestop.asp#locations.
ELECTION DAY: NOV. 4
Today’s weather
O Mostly sunny
H 56, L 37
Thursdays weather
Partly cloudy
H 55, L 36
index
police log 2
calendar 2
nation/world 5
sports 9
crossword 9
opinion .12
Serving the students and the University community since 1893
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Woman dies after being struck
Second fatality caused by a Chapel Hill bus
BY KRISTEN CRESANTE
AND EVAN ROSE
ASSISTANT CITY EDITORS
Despite local efforts to ensure pedestri
an safety, the second person in six months
lost her life in a Monday collision with a
Chapel Hill Transit bus.
Valerie Hughes, 33, was a radiology
imaging specialist for UNC Health Care
since November 2007.
“She had excellent rapport with her
patients and acted as a role model for
new staff,” Michael DeGennaro, director
of operation at the radiology department
of UNC Hospitals, said in a statement.
“She will be missed by her fellow
employees and her patients.”
UNC Hospitals made grief counsel
ors available Tuesday to employees who
knew Hughes.
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Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain waves to the crowd of more than 8,000 Tuesday evening at
the Crown Center in Fayetteville. The state remains a battleground state less than a week before Election Day.
BY MEGHAN COOKE
AND ARIEL ZIRULNICK
STAFF WRITERS
FAYETTEVILLE The last time a
Democrat forced a Republican to fight
Bush.
Clinton clinched a nationwide vic
tory, but did not turn North Carolina
blue. However, he did bring Bush
rushing to defend votes in the tradi-
Young donors show support
BY KELLEN MOORE
SENIOR WRITER
The presidential candidates are
inspiring students to open their
minds —and their wallets.
Students nationwide have
given more than $4.1 million to
Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama and more than $1
million to Republican presidential
candidate John McCain.
That ratio favoring Obama also
is reflected in donation? from N.C.
students.
More than 60 students have
given S2OO or more to Obama’s
campaign, accounting for about
$51,800 of his total purse.
Ten have given S2OO or more
to McCain, totaling about $4,900
less than one-tenth the amount
that Obama’s student supporters
from North Carolina have given.
And those figures don’t take
into account donations of less
www.dailytarheel.com
Collision in a crosswalk
At about 4 p.m. Monday, an NS-route
Chapel Hill Transit bus struck Hughes as
it turned left onto South Columbia Street
from Mason Farm Road.
Hughes was crossing Columbia in the
crosswalk with her head down when the
bus turned, said Jonathan Haywood, a
student in the UNC School of Medicine
who was on the bus.
“Once we started going I looked over
and saw her walking into the street,” he
said.
“The pedestrian was coming from our
left, back towards the bus driver’s left. I
guess he just didn’t see her.”
Chapel Hill police identified the driver
as James Willie Orr on Ttiesday.
Several attempts to contact Chapel
@DTH ONLINE: See video from
McCain's campaign stop in
Fayetteville on Tuesday.
tionally Republican turf.
By pouring resources into the
state, 2008 Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama has forced
Republican opponent John McCain to
do the same.
McCain’s “Straight Talk Express,”
delayed by a flat tire, made a stop
Tuesday evening in Fayetteville in
front of more than 8,000 people.
With Election Day a week away,
McCain’s appearance is a sign he is
for North Carolina
was in 1992,
when newcomer
Bill Clinton ran
against incum
bent George H.W.
than S2OO, which don’t have to be
reported by the candidates. They
also don’t include money given to
political parties or political action
committees that could eventually
end up in candidates’ hands.
Although student donations
are a minute part of the national
fundraising totals, cash-strapped
college students are still willing to
give when the candidates appeal
to them.
To date, Obama has raised a
grand total of more than $521.8
million. McCain has raised more
than $375.1 million.
Duke University graduate stu
dent Christian Kunder is one of
those N.C. givers. Inspired by
McCain’s stance on the war in Iraq
and climate change, he gave SSOO
to the campaign in January via the
Internet.
SEE YOUNG DONORS, PAGE 8
Hill TYansit were unsuccessful.
Police are investigating Monday’s
incident.
lan Allen, another passenger and
medical student, said the bus was mov
ing at a normal speed. Allen said he got
off the bus and tried to help Hughes, who
was trapped under a wheel.
“The driver was in a state of shock,”
he said. “He tried his best to facilitate
the efforts of everyone who was trying
to help her.”
Both Allen and Haywood said Hughes
was conscious, breathing and had a pulse
immediately after the incident. Hughes
died later at UNC Hospitals.
Pedestrian safety efforts
In the wake of several pedestrian fatal
ities, Chapel Hill and UNC officials have
SEE BUS COLLISION, PAGE 8
fighting to keep a state usually expect
ed to be solidly Republican, said UNC
journalism professor Ferrel Guillory.
McCain’s speech Tuesday catered
to the military community, a voting
bloc that is a strong presence because
of nearby Ft. Bragg, one of the largest
military bases in the Southeast.
They’re also voters that he once
could take for granted.
“His essential task is to sustain
Republican voting in this state the way
it has been for the last three decades of
presidential elections,” Guillory said.
SEE MCCAIN, PAGE 8
Student Contribution
Students nationwide have given more financial
support to presidential candidate Barack
Obama's campaign than to John McCain's. The
totals do not indude contributions of less than
S2OO or money given indirectly through
political parties or political action committees.
L North Carolina
9 $4,901
560
(in thousands)
Nationwidc
9 -$1,016,000
(S
Cm millions)
■ McCain ■ Obama
SOURCE: CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY
DTH/KRISTEN long
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2008
Bus strikes pedestrian at crossing
A Chapel Hill Transit bus was turning onto South Columbia
when it struck and killed a pedestrian at a crosswalk.
O T
Parents told
DA they’re
anti-death
penalty
BY EMILY STEPHENSON
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
On the day before classes started in August 2007,
Eve Carson explained that she didn’t support the
death penalty because of flaws in its application.
Carson, moderating a summer-reading discus
sion with then-Chancellor James Moeser, primarily
asked questions of the participants and only once
offered her own judgment.
“It doesn’t work, in my opinion,” Carson, then
in the eSFTy days of her tenure as UNC’s student
Eve Carson,
killed in March,
had said the
death penalty
doesn't work.
Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall said
he weighed the Carsons’ beliefs her parents told
him they oppose capital punishment and believe their
daughter did too before announcing in August that
he plans to seek the death penalty against Demario
James Atwater, 22, if he is convicted.
“They’ve let me know what their feelings are, but
I made a decision,” Woodall said. “Like any decision,
what they told me weighed into the decision, but
that’s not the only factor in making that decision.”
Woodall declined to identify the other factors that
influenced his decision, explaining that he consid
ers the details of his many conversations with the
Carson family private.
Prosecutors say Atwater and Lawrence Alvin
Lovette, 17, who won’t face the death penalty because
of his age, drove Carson in her car to withdraw money
before shooting her several times in a wealthy neigh
borhood near East Franklin Street.
Carson’s death and the resulting debate come after
UNC spent months exploring capital punishment.
In addition to choosing Prejean’s book as the sum
mer reading for incoming students, the University
brought the author to speak on campus.
Carson’s friends said an issue that, while divisive,
SEE DEATH PENALTY, PAGE 8
Congress rejects ethics
query in display funds
BY HILLARY ROSE OWENS
STAFF WRITER
Student Congress will con
sider hosting an open forum for
students to debate the merit of
funding last week’s anti-abor
tion display in Polk Place.
Ryan O’Quinn, vice chair
man of Congress’ rules and
judiciary committee, will pres
ent the proposal at next week’s
full Congress meeting.
He had first presented a
resolution to launch an ethics
inquiry into Carolina Students
for Life’s funding request for the
display.
“I wanted to submit this
resolution mainly to get on the
record some concerns, at least
I had, for the funding request,”
O’Quinn said.
body president, told about 20
first-year students gathered to
discuss Sister Helen Prejean’s
“The Death of Innocents: An
Eyewitness Account ofWrongful
Executions.”
Little more than a year later,
Orange County’s prosecutor
has said he will seek the death
penalty for a man charged in
Carson’s murder.
A federal grand jury indicted
Atwater on Monday. If convict
ed, federal prosecutors also have
the option to seek the death
penalty against Atwater.
“It also reflects concerns brought
to me by my constituents.”
Other representatives rejected
the proposal, saying it isn’t the eth
ics committee’s role to consider the
validity of a group’s event
O’Quinn is a graduate student in
the biology department and repre
sents other graduate students.
Many of his constituents sent
e-mails to Congress members com
plaining about the display.
O’Quinn addressed three con
cerns with the exhibit during the
rules and judiciary committee
meeting.
His main issue was the exhib
it’s age. He said after researching
the display, he determined the
information to be at least 5 years
SEE CONGRESS, PAGE 8