The
ews
J ournal
Hoke County’s newspaper since 1905
No.16Vol.109
Raeford & Hoke County n.c.
Wednesday, Jime 25,2014
Storm wipes out Relay event
Pared-down version of cancer survivor event set for Sunday
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
Storm damage at Relay For Life.
Hoke County Relay For Life
organizers braved the storm Fri
day afternoon as wind tore apart
their tents and rain soaked their T-
shirts, but when hailstones started
falling, it became clear the event
couldn’t go on as scheduled.
The 2014 Relay For Life was
not just rained out but “destroyed”
in a severe summer storm, co
chair Ashley Dial said. The orga
nizers were forced to cancel the
fundraising event for the Ameri
can Cancer Society, and plan to
hold a pared-down ceremony this
Sunday.
“This is the first time we’ve
had to do this,” Dial said.
The severe storm, which
included wind, a lot of lightning
and even hail in some places,
descended on Raz Autry Stadium
at Hoke County High School just
hours before Relay was set to
start. The Relay committee had
been hard at work preparing the
site with the tents, merchandise,
sound system and everything else
that goes into the event. When the
storm hit, the volunteers tried to
keep things together.
“We were out in the middle of
(See RELAY, page 4A)
eff Goins pampers a cabbage in his garden. He grew it, he said, using a heavy dose of a fertilizer known as Rootblast.
And just exactly what the heck is chow chow?
By Ken MacDonald
You know the answer to that if you grew
up around here, but that possibly excludes
most of Hoke County these days. The ques
tion arises because it’s that time of year
when The News-Journal gets reports of
record-size vegetables.
Monday I received such a call, and duti
fully rode out to Old Maxton Road to find
Jeff Goins and his giant cabbage.
Jeff is one of those fellows whose great
est accomplishment possibly is his child.
You may remember Tina, the chef who left
Raeford for Australia and made a name for
herself Anyway, his second-greatest ac
complishment may be his cabbage.
When I arrived, I found a “Welcome
Home Tina” sign on his carport—she’s in
town for three weeks, he says—and him in
his garden in the side yard.
The cabbage had lovingly been en
shrined under a small tarp to keep it from
(See CABBAGE, page 4A)
Scrap yard
finds explosive,
is evacuated
The OmniSource metal recycling yard
evacuated its staff Monday after workers
discovered a potentially live explosive
device.
The staff members at the yard were
going through a bag of scrap copper
pieces brought in by a customer when
they spotted something that looked like
an explosive device and had a warning
written on the side of it, a company em
ployee reported.
Workers carefully removed the device
from the bag, set it down on the ground
and quickly backed away to a safe dis
tance outside the property fence. Then
they called for help.
The Raeford Police Department re
sponded to the scene to block off the area.
The nearby Hoke County Department
of Social Services building did not have
to evacuate while authorities waited for
military bomb squad members to retrieve
the device.
This is not the first time the scrap yard
has had to call in the bomb squad to deal
with an explosive device.
In 2011, the company found live
military artillery rounds on the prop
erty and sought out help in removing
them.
Fort Bragg personnel took those rounds
to the Hoke County landfill to perform a
controlled detonation of them.
The proximity to Fort Bragg is prob
ably what causes the scrap yards in the
area to sometimes turn up explosive
devices, officials have said.
The customers bringing in the scrap
for sale don’t even know what they have
mixed in with the rest of the metal, a
company employee said.
This Week
Calendar 2B
Classifieds 5B
Deaths 3A
Editorials 2A
Legals 3-4B
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Kids will be taught in English one day, Spanish next
Class of kindergartners at Don Steed Elementary to begin program in faU
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
A program coming to
Don Steed Elementary
School this fall won’t for
mally teach students Span
ish but instead will teach
math, science, reading and
more in the language itself
Parents have signed up
the first class of kindergar
teners to take part in Don
Steed Elementary’s Spanish
language immersion pro
gram when classes start this
fall. Principal Kim Gray
said.
“We’re excited that these
children will have the
advantage of a rigorous aca
demic program while learn
ing a second language,” she
said.
The program will teach
students Spanish simply
by immersion, not by rote
lesson as in formal language
classes. One day the stu
dents will learn in English,
and the next day a Spanish
speaking teacher will teach
lessons entirely in Spanish.
“They’re going to learn
it (the language) through
songs and play,” the princi
pal said.
The students are still
taught the same curriculum
as other kindergarteners,
and state assessments are
administered in English.
The program, called
“Splash,” also offers re
sources for teachers and
administrators and helps
connect schools with teach
ers who speak the target
language. The immersion
classroom at Don Steed
Elementary is called a “two-
way” immersion program
as it mixes students who
are native English speakers
and students who are native
Spanish speakers in the
same class.
“Half of the class will be
made up of children whose
(See IMMERSION, page 4A)
Man arrested, charged with break-in
By Ken MacDonald
PLEASANT GARDEN, aka RIDDLE-LAND aka
RITALIN—^When I married into the Riddle family, I felt
like a sheep amongst wolves, a tweeter amongst woofers,
a .22 in a roomful of bazookas. Faced with often-coarse,
and always-aggressive, Riddles (“You want to hear a joke
that’s so funny it will make your hair fall out? Oh wait, I
see you’ve already heard it!”), I had one ally—my mother-
in-law Vivian. She had long-since figured out how to
(See OTHER STUEE, page 4A)
Locklear
Deputies with the
Hoke County Sheriff’s
Office arrested a man
Monday in connection
with a reported break
ing and entering and are
seeking another suspect
in the case.
Authorities arrested
Ronnie Keith Locklear
of the 400 block of Murph McLaughlin
Road in Raeford on charges of breaking and
entering and felony larceny. Locklear was
accused of allegedly breaking into the home
of Danny Locklear, also of the 400 block of
Murph McLaughlin Road. The suspect was
given a $3,000 secured bond.
The items stolen from the victim were
recovered, authorities said.
There are additional warrants pending
for the arrest of another suspect in the case,
officials said.