July 12, 2008

ACROSS THE TARHEEL STATE.

ASHEBORO -- Renovation work will begin shortly on one of the two remaining former Sir Robert Motel buildings to house Asheboro City Schools’ alternative high school, Asheboro High School’s in-school suspension program and a new dropout prevention program.

CHARLOTTE -- State investigators are working this weekend, trying to pinpoint exactly how eight people became sick with salmonella after eating at Mecklenburg County restaurants. The eight local victims became sick during the middle of June. Investigators are trying to find out if it is part of a national outbreak of salmonella believed to be tied to tomatoes and peppers.

CHARLOTTE -- Officials will close a major highway in northeast Mecklenburg County again early Saturday to finish cleaning up the mess left behind after a train slammed into a tanker truck Friday morning. The crash happened just before 8:15 a.m. on N.C. 49 near Cabarrus Farm Road. Authorities said the tanker, which was carrying mineral oil to a Duke Energy substation, either stalled or stopped on the tracks. Norfolk Southern officials said the driver of the tanker failed to yield to the train. The National Transportation Safety Board plans to investigate.

GASTONIA -- A family of eight is homeless after an overnight fire tore through their Gastonia home early Friday morning. Firefighters said the fire started on the back porch of the home on Smyre Drive around 2 a.m. Friday. The man who lives there said he saw a light on the back porch as he headed to bed. That light turned out to be fire. He was able to wake up the other seven people in the house, including his older mother, his fiancee who is seven and a half months pregnant and two other children. Investigators think someone intentionally set the fire because the family had received threatening phone calls earlier.

CURRITUCK -- The Currituck planning board voted Tuesday to amend the county land-use plan, allowing for construction of the 180-acre Currituck Marina residential and business project in the Kilmarlic Club area. The vote includes reclassification of 40 of the 180 acres from conservation to full service. Project developer Michael Perry, director of planning for MSA, P.C., said his firm will donate the remaining 80 acres of wetlands and undeveloped land to an unspecified conservation organization.

RALEIGH -- With the 2010 Census less than two years away, officials are trying to make sure American Indian populations are counted accurately. Census officials are holding several meetings across the country with American Indian tribal leaders. One such meeting was held in Raleigh.

GREENSBORO -- Two Guilford County teachers and one from Hendersonville have been charged with soliciting sex from a minor over the internet. 57-year old David Pace is employed by the Hendersonville Public Schools, 30-year old Brian Seus was a teacher's assistant and lacrosse coach at Western Guilford High School, and 46-year old Kevin Samuel worked at the High School Ahead Academy in Greensboro.

RALEIGH -- The stock market dropped on word of problems with mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. NC State University economist Mike Walden says Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide the grease to the mortgage market and if they shut down there could be huge problems in the mortgage and housing market.

YOUNGSVILLE -- An electrical equipment manufacturer announced plans for a new facility in Franklin County. Eaton Corporation will take over a 125,000 square foot building idled earlier this year by Flextronics.



ACROSS THE PALMETTO STATE

COLUMBIA -- Harris Pastides became the University of South Carolina’s next president today, as trustees unanimously voted to elevate a university insider to the top job.

DARLINGTON -- Darlington Police Chief Jay Cox was suspended this week as a result of an investigation being conducted by the city.

LAKE MURRAY -- A tug of war is developing over how much water should flow from Lake Murray into the lower Saluda River during prolonged dry weather.

COLUMBIA -- A Richland County magistrate says he mistakenly used his county e-mail account when he sent out a political notice Thursday announcing his wife’s possible candidacy for clerk of court.

ORANGEBURG - A missing inmate spotted Thursday near Orangeburg is now being sought in the Midlands, authorities say. Rayshawn James, 28, has been on the run for nearly three weeks after walking away from Palmer Prerelease Center in Florence last month, authorities said. James started serving a six-year sentence in 2007 for crack distribution.

FLORENCE -- A South Carolina woman has died after drug suspects crashed into her car while fleeing police near St. Petersburg, Fla., authorities say. The Pinellas Park Police Department identified the victim as Nachenga Robinson, 32, of Florence.

DUE WEST -- Insurance agents were on campus at Erskine College on Friday morning to assess the damage left behind from a fire at the school’s dining hall.

SPARTANBURG -- An undercover operation has led to the arrest of 16 people suspected of dealing drugs in Spartanburg County, deputies said Friday.


Across The Nation
CALHOUN COUNTY, AL -- It's never happened before. The Calhoun County Commission is so over budget, it may be forced to take out a million dollar loan just to make pay roll

GARDENDALE, AL -- The slow, but steady stream of people began arriving at municipal court Friday morning.  They were among the 1,100 who received letters from the Gardendale Police Department notifying them about the first Amnesty Day.  The letters were sent to the last known address of everyone with an outstanding warrant.  Some of the warrants dated as far back as 2000.

MEMPHIS, TN -- Tennessee's wheat yields this year are expected to be the highest since records began in 1866, according to numbers from the Tennessee Field Office of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

DENVER, CO -- Unless he has another brush with the law and a DNA sample is taken from him, JonBenet Ramsey's killer might never be caught.Even worse, his DNA might already be in a police filing cabinet somewhere, still waiting, along with hundreds of thousands of genetic samples from felons across the United States, to be processed by a laboratory and entered into the national DNA databank.The nation's DNA tracking system is beset with a huge backlog that could take years to clear. And in the meantime, law enforcement officials say, crimes are going unsolved.

BUFFALO, NY -- Businesses now have a "uniform" way to challenge the awarding of billions of dollars in state contracts under a policy change put in place by the comptroller. The new procedures "clearly define" and codify ways that companies can protest how a state agency awarded a contract, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said. For decades, companies have had the ability to challenge state contracts but no guidelines on the appeals process were ever put in writing. As a result, DiNapoli said, "the process lacked consistency and created confusion for the business community."

TACOMA, WA –- Two women were hit by a car while crossing the street Friday afternoon, and one has serious injuries.


And In The Tech World
A vulnerability in the Internet's domain name system left essentially the entire Web open to widespread attack, but the technology community worked to patch the flaw before it could be exploited. Dan Kaminsky, a security researcher, noticed that the DNS was vulnerable to domain cache poisoning, and the discovery amounted to a red alert for the security community.