JM
HEFFNER
@®
Columnist
Along came a spider
I've mentioned Maria, our graphics artist before.
You may remember she’s the young lady who once
dated a guy who transported dead bodies between
hospitals and funeral homes. Maria was also kid-
napped once, but that’s another story.
Last Thursday morning, Maria came dragging
into the office five minutes late. “I didn’t get any
sleep atall,” she said. “As I was going into my apart-
ment last night, I saw a humongous spider outside
of the door, and it scared me half to death.”
The spider sighting upset Maria so much she
dreamed about them all night. My question is, if she
didn’t sleep, how did she dream? You have to know
Maria to conjure up an answer to that.
She told me about a classmate in college who kept
a small spider for a pet. I'm not making this up folks.
She tells it for the truth.
Maria said the girl would pick the spider up and
watch it spin a web from one finger to another and
crawl around on the web. Supposedly, when the pet
spider produced a litter, she got rid of the mother
and all the babies except one, which she then trained
along the same lines as the mother. When this spi-
der produced a litter, she did the same thing again.
“She’s now into the third generation of this spi-
der family,” Maria said.
I wondered, aloud, how the girl knew which spi-
ders were female? Maria looked at me somewhat
puzzled and said,”I don’t know.”
Maria’s friend needs to be told that if these spi-
ders continue to produce offspring, there's a male
arachnid in the woodpile somewhere.
I hated to spoil Maria's image of her spider-lov-
ing friend, but I told her the girl was pulling her
leg.
I don’t think she believed me.
Once, when I was a young boy, my father spotted
a large spider-on the wall in our living room. We
had one of those black, pot-bellied heaters sitting
on a hearth back then, as did many houses in the
Travora Mill village in York, S.C.
My dad reached for a stick of stove-wood to dis-
patch the uninvited intruder, but stopped short be-
cause he found he was just before putting his hand
ona large black widow spider, which was poised to
bite him.
The incident was a scary experience for a young
boy, and my father, one of the most fearless men I
ever knew, was somewhat shaken as well.
One of the dangers of growing up poor during
the depression years, and immediately thereafter,
was using the outhouse: Most-mill houses in York
lacked indoor plumbing. During the winter months
spiders found ways to get into houses, and espe-
cially outhouses, so when nature called, the adven-
ture was on. People learned quickly to check the
outhouse closely before closing the door.
I knew a man who went to the outhouse on his
wedding night, and was bitten by a black widow
spider. He didn’t die from the bite, but it was sev-
eral weeks before he was able to take a honeymoon.
I mean that literally.
Fortunately, those “outhouse days" are gone for
all but the most rural of people. :
There are just two poisonous spiders in our part
of the country. The black widow is still around, and
then there’s the brown recluse, a transplant from
foreign soil. The bite of either can kill, but usually
doesn’t if treated properly.
The best thing to do is avoid the vicious little
varmints. Resist the urge to visit an outhouse if you
chance to spot one out in the country somewhere,
and above all don’t take them in as pets.
I still think Maria’s friend was putting her on.
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| HQUSE-SENATE
WRASSLIN
Comp Time bill 1s good one
This week Congress will debate a bill that is good for
American workers and their families. The Workin
Families Flexibility Act (Comp Time) would amend the
1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to give employ-
ers the authority to offer interested employees the
chance to take compensatory time off, instead of cash
for working overtime.
Specifically, the bill would allow employers to com-
pensate their employees with 1.5 hours of paid leave
for each hour worked over 40 hours in a seven day
work period. The bill allows employees, together with
their families, to decide whether to take this time off or
to take the additional cash associated with overtime.
This is a choice that employees at various levels of gov-
ernment have had and used successfully for over a
decade.
The bill does not require employers to offer compen-
satory time, but instead makes that option available if
both the employer and the employee so desire. These
new options will provide many workers with a more
flexible system that will allow them to spend more
time with their family, run errands, or attend to what-
ever personal matters they may need time to address.
The changes proposed by this legislation provide re-
lief for which millions of Americans have been asking.
As the percentage of men and women who must bal-
ance work and family responsibilities grows, employ-
ers are often hampered by federal law in their attempts
. to,accommodate employee requests for more flexibility
in their work schedules. This will would remove one of
“4 those ‘obstacles ‘and give private sector employees the
Rep. Sue
Myrick
NC 9th District
Guest Column
same option that their counterparts in the public sector
have had for years
While the option of choosing between more time or
more money may not seem that important to some
salaried workers, the flexibility this option provides
single parent households who are dependent upon an
hourly income, is immense. Any working mother who
has had to choose between making money to put food
on the table or missing work to nurse a sick child, will
appreciate the flexibility this bill offers. Hard working
fathers will also enjoy the extra time as they will now
be able to attend more Little League games and PTA
meetings with their family.
As a wife, mother, grandmother and former small
business owner, I know firsthand how hard it is to bal-
ance the responsibilities of work and family. This bill
offers a common-sense approach to help with this bal-
ancing act. Hopefully it will garner the President's sig-
nature and become law - a law that "works" for "work-
ing families.” hi seit aniiny
==
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ik
D.5.S. LICENSE DIV.
THERIR © 956 ctroumd carmons
L YOUR REGRD IN NORTH CAROLINA ZS CLEAN, HERE'S
El REST HOME OPERATORS LICENSE MR. CAPONE.
GEE, TANKS! Lond
er)
|
Anne
Sidewalk Survey
GOOLSBY
Syndicated Columnist
Federal study outlines massive
problems in Parole Commission
A recent study by the National Institute of
Corrections concluded that North Carolina's pa-
role system is one big mess. With no guidance or
policies for reviewing cases, denying or granting
parole, nor even revoking parole and sending
criminals back to prison, our state's parole system
ranks as one of the largest bureaucratic disasters
in the country.
Since 1993 the Parole Commission has been
chaired by Juanita Baker, a Hunt political ap-
pointee, who heads the five member panel and a
staff of 100 workers. Their job is to review the cas-
es of thousands of criminals who are eligible for
parole each year in North Carolina. Last year, the
commission granted parole to over 4,000 inmates.
A seething federal report stated, "The majority
of the staff do not feel there is any direction pro-
vided, nor are there any documents which lay out
proper procedures for handling cases, making de-
cisions, recommendations, or related to any as-
pect of the daily operations of the commission."
In response to this blistering critique, Ms. Baker
demonstrated her keen grasp of the obvious. She
stated, "I think it paints a picture that there is
much needed to be done here." A more appropri-
ate response for Ms. Baker would be to apologize
to the people of North Carolina and resign.
As North Carolina is preparing to spend $75
million next year renting prison spaces from vari-
ous counties and prisons in other states for over
4,000 of our inmates, we currently have no idea
how many backlogged inmates could be released
from our prisons. The federal report noted that as
the commission works its way through its sub-
stantial backlog of cases, many offenders are im-
mediately released. However, the report states
that "no one really has a handle on the magnitude
of the problem or the number." It is also very un-
settling that no backup system exists if and when
staff workers become sick or go on vacation.
Their work simply does not get accomplished un-
til they return.
Besides the financial concerns related to the
great expense of incarcerating individuals who
can and should be released, we cannot forget
about public safety concerns. With no guidelines
or policies for reviewing cases and no full time
victim coordinator, our Parole Commission risks
numerous nightmares of Orwellian proportions.
Bureaucrats with little or ‘no guidance from
above are apparently givén free reign and the
keys to every jail cell in the state. Could anything
be more ridiculous and absurd than our current
parole system? Think of the thousands of dedicat-
ed law enforcement officers who risk their lives to
protect the public in tracking down and arresting
criminals. Try to imagine the countless hours
spent by prosecutors, judges, court clerks and
bailiffs to run the criminal justice system in our
state. Don't forget about the tens of millions of
our tax dollars spent to pay for law enforcement,
our courts and the prison system.
With the current state of affairs in the parole
system, all of the hard work of thousands of dedi-
cated professionals and the countless tax dollars
are hurled out the window, thanks to a bumbling
bureaucracy. With no job descriptions or even a
system or performance evaluations, none of the
staffers of the Parole Commission know what
they are expected to do, nor can their bosses even
evaluate how their subordinates are performing.
Such an out-of-control system is a travesty and
an outrage to the innocent, law-abiding and tax-
paying citizens of North Carolina. Immediate ac-
tion must be taken by Governor Hunt to establish
a professionally run organization that can and
will be held accountable for protecting the public
and guaranteeing a fair and equitable parole sys-
tem that upholds our society's ideal of justice.
Our current parole system is in fact no system at
all, but one outragepus mess.
* By Elizabeth Stewart
Are you tired of T
—
he Olympics?
|
Republic TR Newspapers, Inc.
EMILY BLAKE
Student
Kings Mountain
Yes. I wish they would
put something else on tele-
vision for us to watch.
. SCOTT SMITH
Student
Kings Mountain
No. I love the gymnas-
tics best of all. I'd like to
see more on TV and would
like to be there.
WAYNE LOWERY
Self-employed
Kings Mountain
Not really. Virgil (my pet
parrot) and I stayed home
while my wife went to
Atlanta and really enjoyed
the Olympics. I enjoy the
TV coverage.
W.D. HOLDER
Club Manager
No. I don’t think the TV
coverage of the games has
been enough.
PAUL DOVER
- Production Operation
Kings Mountain
No. I have tickets for
track, field, archery, basket-
ball, canoeing and eques-
"trian events this week in
Atlanta and I am excited.
Ni ~~
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