The Chapel Hill Whoopee
Friday, Feb. 27, 2004
Early Edition
Volume 5, No. 1
Snow covers state
The Associated Press
AP Photo
School’s out: Alice Randles, left, hits Matt Baunack, right, with a
snowball as Heidi Sarrell watches from behind, near Arden, N.C.
Edited by Elizabeth Michalka
CHARLOTTE — President Bush canceled a
scheduled visit to Charlotte Thursday as a winter storm swept over North Carolina from the
south, dumping 6 inches of snow and more
across a wide swath of the state.
Forecasters predicted snow accumulation
across all of North Carolina, except for rain
along the coast. Heavy snow fell across much of
the state by midday.
Highway crews worried that roads might get
slushy during the day and freeze at night, making conditions worse.
In Charlotte, heavy, wet snow made driving
difficult and closed many businesses. MEDIC,
the Mecklenburg County emergency medical
service, was responding to 10 calls about injuryrelated car crashes per hour, spokeswoman
Paige Sheehan said.
Bush had been scheduled to arrive in the
early afternoon for a job retraining seminar at
Central Piedmont Community College and a
$2,000-a-plate evening fund-raiser at the
Charlotte Convention Center. But the White
House called off the visit shortly after 1 p.m.,
saying the weather was too severe.
Some of the heaviest precipitation was in the
Sandhills, in the south-central part of the state.
Snow fell at 2 inches an hour, reducing visibility to a quarter mile, in Hoke and Cumberland
counties, the National Weather Service said.
“Most of the roads in the county have turned
to a covered ice and snow mixture,” said Jerry
Taylor of
the state Department of
Transportation’s office in Cumberland County.
“The weather conditions are deteriorating and
we are out there plowing.”
Taylor said crews started salting overpasses
and bridges at 4 a.m. He said there were a few
accidents, but “most people are yielding to the
weather.”
Officials also closed Fort Bragg because of
the snow.
Forecasters issued a winter storm warning
for central and western North Carolina
House
passes
bill
Old religion
follows world
influences
Act to give
new rights
to fetuses
Sabaean Mandaeans practice
original Baptist religion, lifestyle
By Tod Robberson
The Dallas Morning News
Edited By Allison Lewis
BAGHDAD, Iraq — They
call themselves the original
Baptists, but any similarities
to
Americans
of
that
description pretty much end
with the waterborne ritual
they share.
Iraq’s Baptists, known as
the Sabaean Mandaeans,
don’t gather in suburban
megachurches
equipped
with TV screens and state-ofthe-art sound systems. Their
Baghdad headquarters is a
tiny temple whose cashstrapped congregation doesn’t own so much as a bullhorn.
Preaching the Gospel and
winning converts are not
among their strong suits. For
one thing, while some
Mandaeans have studied the
Bible, they don’t regard it as
their holy book. For another,
these Baptists don’t consider
themselves Christians. Their
faith, with influences from
Judaism, Gnosticism, preChristian
religions,
Christianity and Islam, predates Christianity, possibly
by centuries, if not millennia.
For the Mandaeans, there
is no such thing as missionary work or conversion.
Membership in the religion
is so exclusive that it can be
attained only by birth, and
only if both parents are
Mandaeans.
Having survived thousands of years under harsh
circumstances,
the
Mandaean religion risks
being erased in a region
where Islam is, by far, the
dominant religion, many
Mandaeans say. In some
respects, they credit the nonsectarian government of
ousted
leader
Saddam
Hussein with helping protect
and preserve their faith
when few others would. It is
unclear how the Mandaeans
will fare under any future
Iraqi government.
The word Sabaean comes
from the Aramaic-Mandic
word saba, or “immersed in
water,” according to the
group’s Web site, www.mandaeans.org.
Mandaean
comes from the word menda,
or “knowledge.”
The Mandaeans’ focus on
water, particularly in the
performance of ablutions
before prayers and rituals,
more closely resembles the
Muslim practice of ritual
cleansing before the five
daily prayer services than it
does any rite of Western
Baptists.
“We are one of the oldest
monotheistic religions in the
world. Some say we are the
oldest,” Sheikh Jabbar Helu,
the most senior Mandaean
cleric, who wears a long gray
beard, flowing robes and is a
fluent speaker of Aramaic,
the language of Jesus and
John the Baptist. “Our religious texts date to Seth, son
of the prophet Adam. Our
last prophet was John the
Baptist.”
Principal
among
Mandaean beliefs is “that
water is the source of all life.
It is the basic element of all
living things,” said Sheikh
Khaldun Majid, another senior cleric. “Rashamen (ablution using holy water) is the
essence of our religion.
History shows that we were
Please see Snow on Page 2A
By Jim Abrams
KRT Photo
An exercise of faith: Sherin Riadh is baptized as part of her wedding vows. Followers,
who claim they are the original Baptists, are baptized many times during their lives.
performing
Rashamen
before the emergence of
Judaism, Christianity or
Islam.”
The last time an outsider
was permitted to convert
was around A.D. 70, said
Sheikh Jabbar. Persecution
and internal divisions during the first century were the
main reason for closing the
religion to outsiders, he
added.
Their numbers are dwindling because birthrates
among members are dropping, he said. He estimated
there are only 100,000 to
150,000 Mandaeans worldwide, mostly concentrated in
Iraq and Iran. At its peak
before Christianity, it was
among the most widely practiced religions in the world,
he asserted.
Having been based in a
heavily Muslim-dominated
region for centuries, the religion has fallen into obscurity. Since the 1979 seizure of
Please see Baptists on Page 2A
KRT Photo
Part of the wedding: At the Mendi Temple in Baghdad,
Ali Muain wears a twig on his forehead during his baptism ceremony for his wedding vows.
The Associated Press
Edited by Kendra Allen
WASHINGTON — The U.S.
House of Representatives voted
Thursday to subject assailants
who injure or kill a pregnant
woman and her fetus to two separate crimes. The bill would give
victim’s rights to a fetus for the
first time under federal law.
The bill, championed by conservative groups, drew opposition
from others concerned that conferring new rights on the fetus
would undermine abortion rights.
The Unborn Victims of
Violence Act was approved 254163 after the House rejected a
Democratic-led alternative that
would have increased penalties
for those attacking a pregnant
woman but continue to regard
the offense as perpetrated on one
victim.
“That little unborn child is
intrinsically precious and valuable and deserving of standing in
the law and protection,” argued
Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill.
The legislation now must be
taken up by the Senate, where
abortion rights forces are
stronger and passage is more
uncertain.
President Bush has promoted
the bill, an election-year priority
for his conservative base.
Supporters said Americans
were solidly behind making an
attack on a pregnant woman subject to two crimes.
Criminal law, said James
Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., House
Judiciary Committee chairman,
“is an expression of society’s values,” and anything less than
making a woman and the unborn
child separate victims “does not
resonate with society’s sense of
justice.”
Please see Unborn on Page 2A
Rebels close in on
Haiti’s capital city
By Ian James
Associated Press Writer
CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti — Rebels
began moving toward Haiti’s capital
of
Port-au-Prince
on
Thursday and are awaiting the
order to attack, a guerrilla leader
told The Associated Press.
The leader, Guy Philippe, said
their mission was to arrest
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
if he did not resign, so he could
be tried on charges ranging from
corruption to murder.
“I don’t want him to die. It
would be too easy. He has to pay for
what he has done to the Haitian
people,” Philippe said in an interview with the AP in Cap-Haitien,
the country’s second-largest city
that fell to the rebels Sunday.
“We’ve decided to go toward
Port-au-Prince. They’re on their
way,” said Philippe, leader of the
uprising that has overrun half of
Haiti and killed at least 80 people.
“They’re taking their places.
They know what to do.”
Pressure is mounting for
Aristide to resign. France is blaming him for the chaos in its former
colony in the 3-week-old rebellion
and is urging that he be replaced
by a transitional government.
Foreigners are fleeing Haiti
amid isolated looting. President
Bush said the United States is
encouraging the international
community to provide a strong
security presence.
Aristide, who has shown determination to keep power, has said
a rebel attack on the capital could
kill thousands.
Please see Rebels on Page 2A
Death sentence
for Page stayed
By ESTES THOMPSON
Walter Astrada AP Photo
Fleeing: A Dominican Republic officer escorts relatives of
diplomats to a helicopter in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
In The News
item1 with pic. to switch type faces to make this thing
look better and better better.Page 2A.
item2 to switch type faces to make this thing look better
and better better.Page 2A.
item3 to switch type faces to make this thing look better
and better better.Page 2A.
AP Photo
Lead-in:
Text is what
we should
put in the
place to
explain this
photo.
Associated Press Writer
Edited by Jenni Norman
RALEIGH — State prosecutors
decided Thursday not to fight a
federal stay of execution for a man
who killed a police officer, instead
waiting for the U.S. Supreme
Court to rule on the constitutionality of execution by injection.
U.S. District Court Judge
Terrence Boyle said a day earlier
that George Franklin Page
shouldn’t be executed until the
U.S. Supreme Court decides an
Alabama case contending death
by injection is unconstitutionally
cruel.
Page was scheduled to be executed at 2 a.m. Friday for the
shooting death of
Officer
featured
feature
The real world is so bad
that people are watching
TV more for escape than
news, say blah blah blah
professors. Page 1C.
Stephen Levi Amos, who was
shot Feb. 27, 1995, when he
responded to a call at Page’s
apartment.
The victim’s father, Stephen
Amos, said the news was disappointing.
“It’s hard enough to live with
the memory of my son on a daily
basis,” he said. “This just makes
it worse.”
State Attorney General Roy
Cooper said he would wait for the
high court’s decision, but expected Page to be executed eventually.
“We believe that this sentence
should be carried out and that
North Carolina’s method of exe
Please see Execution on Page 2A
Today’s Index
Weather
Sunny today,
but not
tonight.
Page 3A.
Business . . . . . . 1D
Calendar . . . . . . 2E
Classified . . . . . 1G
Crime . . . . . . . . . 2B
Crossword . . . . . 5F
Deaths . . . . . . . . 4B
Editorials . . . . . 14A
Life. . . . . . . . . . . 1E
Live Wire . . . . . . 2A
Movies . . . . . . . . 1C
Sports . . . . . . . . 1C
Television . . . . . 8F
Page designed by:
Amanda Jepsen
xxxday, Month, 2004, Page 2
Type of news
Snow Continued From Page 2A
Presidential
trip
canceled
Baptists Continued From Page 1A
stock and killed servants “at the
edge of a sword.” But the Book
of Isaiah describes them as
“men of stature.”
In modern Iraq, they are
largely ignored. Muslims tend
to confuse them with Christians
because their temples bear a
wooden cross draped with a
folded cloth. Mandaean women
frequently wear Western-style
clothes.
Sheikh Jabbar said the
Mandaeans try to respect both
Islam and Christianity and
avoid favoring one over the
other. But the association with
Christianity is undeniable, he
added, given the New Testament
accounts of John the Baptist’s
foretelling the coming of Jesus.
“We like to think of our religions as cousins, just like Jesus
and John the Baptist were
cousins,” said Sheikh Jabbar.
“Our religions are very similar,
but they are also very different.”
He said Mandaeans study and
respect the teachings of Jesus,
but regard him not as the son of
God, but as wise a messenger —
one who may have been a follower of John the Baptist.
John’s baptism of Jesus in
the Jordan River, recounted in
the Gospels, suggests that Jesus
was a Mandaean, not a Jew,
Sheikh Jabbar added.
Unlike Christians, for whom
baptism is typically a once-in-alifetime event, Mandaeans may
be baptized thousands of times
as a purifying rite, Sheikh
Jabbar said.
Couples, for example, will be
baptized once after their
engagement, again before the
wedding ceremony and yet
again after the marriage is consummated.
Pallbearers must be baptized
Execution Continued From Page 2A
cution is constitutional,” Cooper said.
“We agree with Judge Boyle that the factual and
legal issues in this case are now directly before the
U.S. Supreme Court in an Alabama case. Under the
law, we must wait for the outcome of the Alabama
case to make certain this execution takes place in a
constitutional manner.”
At issue in the Alabama case, Nelson v.
Campbell, is the potential use of the cut-down
method of lethal injection.
In Page’s case, like the Alabama case, defense
lawyers said the inmate’s arm may have to be cut
open to accommodate the needle because of damaged veins near the skin. His history of taking antianxiety drugs may also make his body less sensitive to the lethal drugs, said Gretchen Engel, one of
the lawyers in the federal case.
“Mr. Page’s medical condition is such that he
presents a real risk of suffering excruciating
pain,” she said Wednesday.
Correction officials said in an affidavit that no
executions in North Carolina have required the
contested method and Page had no condition that
would have required it.
Boyle said his decision was based solely on due
process concerns, not the merits of the argument.
“A case in which the final outcome will result in
Rebels Continued From Page 1A
“We hope American and
Canadian authorities will rally
behind the French position to
help Haiti avoid a civil war,” he
told French RTL radio.
French Defense Ministry
spokesman
Jean-Francois
Bureau said it was too early to
discuss whether there would be a
role for the military in ensuring
a peaceful departure by Aristide,
should he leave the island.
Aristide, 50, has steadily lost
support as poverty deepened after
his party swept flawed legislative
elections in 2000 and international donors suspended aid.
As order in the impoverished
country of 8 million unraveled,
Aristide’s two daughters flew to
the United States.
American Airlines delayed
three of its five daily flights to
the United States on Wednesday
because crew and passengers had
trouble passing the roadblocks.
Air Jamaica canceled its flights
to Haiti indefinitely.
Fearing an exodus of Haitians,
the Dominican Republic doubled
the number of troops along its
225-mile border with Haiti.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.,
said Republicans were opting for
an election-year abortion issue
instead of backing a less controversial approach that would
make attacks on pregnant women
a single, but more serious crime.
Backers said the measure was
needed to bring federal law in line
with 29 states where those who
attack pregnant women can be
charged with two crimes when the
fetus is harmed, including murder.
One of
those states is
California, where Scott Peterson
is on trial for the murder of his
wife Laci and her unborn boy
Conner. The bill has also been designated Laci and Conner’s Law.
The Democratic-led opposition, however, says the real aim
of the legislation is to undermine
abortion rights by giving the
unborn the same legal rights as
the born. They charged that abortion politics was taking precedence over the need to protect
abused women.
Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.,
said it would affect a woman’s
reproductive rights. It “is not
about women and it is not about
children. It’s about politics.”
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.,
offered an alternative that would
increase penalties for attacks
leading to the interruption of a
pregnancy but would not confer
separate legal rights to the fetus.
It was defeated, 229-186.
The White House, in a statement, said it opposed such an
coast, warning of gusty northeast winds to 35 mph
and seas to 12 feet.
Snow began falling around dawn in Charlotte and
was accumulating by mid-morning.
John Towe, 53, walked out of a Charlotte hardware
store with a plastic sled as the snow began falling.
“I told the kids I wasn’t coming home without a
sled,” Towe said. “And I took a vacation day — it couldn’t be any better. We’re going to play in the snow.”
To the east in Richmond County, some residents
were making the most of the weather.
“It’s still coming and it’s as pretty as it can be,” said
Lorene Tucker of Hoffman. “Usually we have ice and
stuff with it. This is no ice and it’s just so pretty.”
Widespread snow was expected across the mountains with storm totals up to 12 inches for counties
near the Tennessee border, the weather service said.
Light snow was expected in the Triad area with heavier amounts later in the day.
“It’s going to snow in Asheville most of the day and
the snow will continue into the evening,” said Larry
Lee, a meteorologist with the National Weather
Page’s execution stayed
Most of the barricades that Aristide loyalists built in Port-auPrince were removed Thursday. Streets were empty, except for
motorists lining up for dwindling supplies of gasoline.
Asked if attack was imminent, Phillipe said, “It doesn’t mean that
we’re going to attack today. We’re
just going to take our positions
and wait for the right time.”
A government official said
Aristide’s National Palace was
defended by about 100 officers in
Haiti’s force of less than 4,000.
Philippe has said he now commands 5,000 men.
Philippe said Wednesday he
was going to give Aristide a
chance to step down. On
Saturday, Aristide agreed to a
U.S.-backed plan to share power,
but the opposition rejected it,
saying he must step down.
“We saw there was no hope for
peace,” Philippe said. “We spent
a week waiting for this peace to
come. We can’t stay waiting for
him to decide while his people
are killing people. … Every day,
innocent people are being killed,
houses are being burned.”
France called for Aristide’s
resignation, saying “he bears
grave responsibility for the current situation.”
“It’s up to him to accept the
consequences while respecting
the rule of law,” Foreign
Minister Dominique de Villepin
said in a statement.
French officials confirmed
Thursday that de Villepin was
calling for Aristide to resign.
Abel Descollines, a member of
the
opposition
Democratic
Platform
coalition,
praised
France’s statement and asked the
United States and Canada to do
the same.
The Chapel Hill Whoopee
through 6 a.m. Friday as the precipitation moved slowly northward from South Carolina and Georgia. Gale
warnings were posted for the
Religion hard
to study, track
power in Iraq by Saddam and
the 1978 Islamic revolution in
Iran, foreign researchers have
had limited access to the
Mandaeans.
Clerics said the last major
academic study of the group
was done in the 1930s by
Elizabeth Drower, a European
scholar who spent years living
among the Mandaeans in Iraq.
After establishing close friendships and a deep understanding
of the religion, she asked for
permission to convert, said
Sheikh Khaldun.
“It could not be permitted.
Not even my own cousin was
allowed to baptize his two children as Mandaeans. He was
married to an outsider,” the
cleric explained. “He asked me
to make an exception, but I
could not.”
The secret to their religion’s
longevity is the ability of its
members to adapt to more dominant cultures while remaining
internally close-knit and mindful of the need to preserve their
own way of life.
Fancy food is discouraged.
Purists among the Mandaeans
will eat only what they’ve
grown or slaughtered. Alcohol
is forbidden.
Not only have the Mandaeans
in Iraq survived three devastating modern wars and outlasted
the 25-year dictatorship of
Saddam; their ancestors in
ancient Mesopotamia endured
the dynasties of
Hittites,
Israelites, Mongols, Ottomans,
Greeks and Romans, to name a
few.
They are mentioned four
times in the Old Testament, not
always in the most glowing
terms. In the Book of Job,
Mandaeans are described as
violent raiders who seized live-
Page designed by:
Unborn Continued From Page 1A
amendment but voiced strong
support for the base bill.
The House passed similar bills
in 1999 and 2001. The bill again
faces an uphill fight in the Senate
with its stronger abortion rights
forces. The Senate did not take up
the two previous House bills.
The legislation would apply
only to attacks on women that
qualify as federal offenses. Those
would include such crimes as terrorist attacks, bank robberies,
drug trafficking or assaults on
federal land.
The sponsors of the bill, led by
Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Pa., said they
were not out to undermine abortion rights and their bill specifically precludes from prosecution
those who perform legal abortions.
the imposition of the death penalty calls for a clear,
final and comprehensive rule of law,” Boyle wrote.
“At present, such a standard is lacking.”
Walter Jones, lead defense attorney for Page,
said he was pleased with the decision.
Earlier Wednesday, a state court judge issued a
stay for Page after defense lawyers said records
might lead to a new medical conclusion about
Page’s mental state.
Forsyth County Superior Court Judge Catherine
Eagles had scheduled a hearing Thursday morning
in Winston-Salem so the defense could present its
claim. State prosecutors had asked the N.C.
Supreme Court to overturn Eagles’ stay.
During the hearing, it was decided that arguments would be postponed until April 19.
Jones has said Page suffered from several mental
illnesses, including manic depression and posttraumatic stress disorder resulting from his military service in Vietnam.
The jury never heard solid evidence about the
stress disorder or Page’s flashbacks and hallucinations during the trial, Jones has said, because his
original lawyers didn’t request medical records.
Gov. Michael Easley had been asked to grant
clemency to Page and reduce his sentence to life in
prison.
xxxday, Month, 2004, Page 3
In Brief
Compiled by Molly Freedman
Ex-Black Panther will
speak to UNC groups
Ahmad Rahman, the 2004
Diaspora Scholar in Residence
at UNCís Sonja Haynes Stone
Center for Black Culture and
History, is available to speak to
community groups this week.
He also will provide
commentary at the center’s
screening Tuesday (Feb. 24) of
“American Exile” about former
Black Panther leader Pete
OíNeal, who has lived in Africa
for the past 30 years.
The free public screening
will begin at 3:30 p.m. in 319
Greenlaw.
Rahman, a visiting assistant
professor of Africana studies
at the University of Toledo,
was a leader in the Black
Panther Party in Detroit. He
was sent to prison in 1971 as a
result of an FBI investigation.
Rahman spent 20 years
behind bars, earning his bachelorís degree and becoming the
first prisoner admitted into a
graduate program at the
University of Michigan-Ann
Arbor.
Currently he is completing
his doctoral dissertation .
Panel to tackle issue
of professors’ politics
“The Politics of Academic
Freedom:
Does
Political
Affiliation Matter?” will be held
at 8 p.m. March 1.
Several of Duke University’s
leading experts on academic
freedom and American politics
will discuss issues related to
the current campus controversyabout faculty members’ political affiliation in a March 1
symposium.
“The Politics of Academic
Freedom:
Does
Political
Affiliation Matter?” will be held
at 8 p.m. in Zener Auditorium,
130
Sociology/Psychology
Building, on Duke’s West
Campus.
Provost Peter Lange, whose
office is sponsoring the event,
will moderate the discussion,
which is free and open to the
public.
The symposium was formed
in the wake of an ad placed in
The Chronicle, the campus’
daily student-run newspaper,
by the Duke Conservative
Union, a student regional
group, which questioned the
possible effect this imbalance
has on classroom discussions
The ad noted the high number of departments where a
preponderance of faculty members are registered Democrats.
The Chronicle’s letters-tothe-editor section has subsequently published numerous
comments from members of the
university community about
the issue.
John F. Burness, senior vice
president for public affairs and
government relations, said,
“Provost Lange feels it would be
useful to augment the robust
discussion on the pages of The
Chronicle and local papers by
having faculty members from a
broad rangeof political perspectives and expertise discuss
the issues.”
Burness added that Duke
President Nannerl O. Keohane
had said the question raised by
the Duke Conservative Union
deserved a thoughtful answer.
“I am confident this panel of
leading faculty will help inform
the discussions at the university,” he said.
NC State to host 4th
“Run for Respect”
North
Carolina
State
University will host the fourth
annual Run for Respect 5K.
Proceeds benefit Interact of
Raleigh and two university programs — the Women to Women
Program and the Men’s
Program.
These three programs educate the community on issues of
rape, sexual assault, relationship-violence prevention and
positive relationship development through educational programs and outreach awareness
activities.
Participants will have the
opportunity to choose from
competitive or recreational 5K
runs or a recreational walk.
Water, refreshments, awards
and prizes will be available.
The run is sponsored by NC
State Student Health Services’
health promotion department
and will take place Saturday,
March 27 at 10:30 a.m.at NC
State’s Centennial Campus in
Raliegh.
The entry fee for the competitive run division is $12 on or
before March 12, $15 after
March 12 and $20 on site.
The entry fee for the recreational run and recreational
walk is $10 before March 12, $12
after March 12 and $15 on site.
Participants who register on
or before March 12 will receive
a free T-shirt. T-shirts will be
given on a first-come, firstserved basis to those registering after March 12. On-site registration and participant checkin will be held from 9 to 10 a.m.
For registration information,
visit the NC State Student
Health Services’ Run for
Respect
web
site
at
www.ncsu.edu/health_promotion/run/.
University news
Movies provide insight
in UNC public forums
By Leslie Lang
Edited By Allison Lewis
CHAPEL HILL — A popular
community lecture series at the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill goes Hollywood this
year: Beginning March 2, the UNC
Mini-Medical School will premiere “Medicine in the Movies.”
The four-part festival features
lectures by renowned faculty
from UNC’s School of Medicine,
followed by full-length theatrical
movies with medical themes.
The series will be held 7 p.m. to
9:30 p.m. March 2, 16, 23 and 30 at
UNC’s William and Ida Friday
Center for Continuing Education.
Pre-registration is required, and
space is limited. The fee is $20 for
the public and $10 for students.
The following movies will be
screened and discussed:
“Gattaca,” March 2. Ethan
Hawke and Uma Thurman star in
a 1997 futuristic thriller. Dr. Patrick
F. Sullivan, professor of genetics
and member of the Carolina
Center for Genome Sciences,
explores bioethical issues surrounding genetic manipulation.
“As Good as it Gets,”March 16.
AP Photo
Movie class: Ethan Hawke in futuristic “Gattaca,” about a genetically imperfect man, part of UNC’s Mini-Medical Schoolprogram.
Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and
Greg Kinnear form an unlikely
bond in this 1997 offbeat comedy.
Dr. Robert N. Golden, chair of the
department of psychiatry, discusses obsessive-compulsive disorder.
“At First Sight,” March 23. Val
Kilmer and Mira Sorvino star in a
1999 love story in which a miraculous operation to restore sight
comes with an unexpected price.
Dr. Travis A. Meredith, chair of
ophthalmology, will discuss blindness and sight-restorative surgery.
“Miss Evers’ Boys,” March 30.
This 1997 true story exposes a 40year government-backed medical
research on humans and its tragic
consequences. Dr. Giselle CorbieSmith, assistant professor of social
medicine, explores issues related
to minority health research.
TV personality helps raise money
for student scholarships at NCCU
Foundation chooses
different school
every month
Edited By Elizabeth Michalka
Tom Joyner of the Tom Joyner
Morning Show will help raise
money to provide scholarships to
students at North Carolina
Central University during the
month of February Central
University has been selected as
the Tom Joyner Foundation
School of the Month for
February.
This designation stipulates
AP Photo
Fundraiser: Tom Joyner, TV
host raises money for students.
that monies raised by the Joyner
Foundation during February will
be directed to NCCU to support
student scholarships.
Through this initiative, NCCU
plans to raise a significant portion of its $1 million Annual
Fund goal.
“We are extremely pleased to
be recognized in this manner,”
said
Chancellor
James
H.Ammons. “Increased scholarship support for our students has
emerged as one of our highest
institutional priorities.
“NCCU continues to have a
major impact in this area.The
Tom Joyner initiative will hopefully stimulate increased private
sector support. It will also enable
us to enhance public recognition
and visibility for those who support our vital mission.”
This month of fundraising will
culminate with the live radio
broadcast of the Tom Joyner ‘Sky
Show’ on Friday, February 27,
from the Raleigh Convention
Center during the upcoming
CIAA Tournament. As part of the
broadcast, contributors will have
the opportunity to announce
donations of $5,000 or more.
Donations for this fund-raiser
are being accepted now through
February 29.
“The Tom Joyner initiative
comes at a very auspicious time,”
said Sulayman Clark,vice chancellor of Institutional Advancement.
“It coincides with the 2004
launch of our revitalized Annual
Fund Campaign and strengthens
Engineering competition
has robots battling out
By Deborah Hill
Edited by Tricia Horatio
Thirty-one robots will battle it
out in the mechanical engineering competition Monday at Duke
University.
The competition, which will be
held in the Love Auditorium in
the Levine Science Research
Center on Duke’s West Campus,
begins at 6:30 p.m. Admission is
free and open to the public.
Each team’s goal is to score
with as many Ping-Pong balls as
possible in a 2-minute round.
“In previous years students
quickly figured out that a claw
could grab and dunk more than
one ball at a time and Duke students designed their robots that
way, but this year we’re trying to
encourage more shooting,” said
mechanical engineering professor Robert Kielb at Duke’s Pratt
School of Engineering.
To give teams incentive to
attempt riskier shots, this year’s
court features three baskets on
each side. The tallest basket, at 18
inches off the court, earns three
points per ball. Two lower baskets, each 9-inches high, earn
teams one point for each ball.
Other changes to the competition should heighten competition
and encourage diversity in
design as well.
Two years ago, March Mayhem
rules against fouling and interfering with the opposing team’s
robot were very strict. “This year
we’re allowing a lot more aggression on the field,” Kielb said.
“You’ll probably see pushing,
shoving and overt blocking this
time, he said.
There is a $500 prize for the
winning team, with $200 and $100
prizes for second and third place.
There will also be $100 prizes
for best shooting, best design and
best fabrication.
NCSU class tutors online
By Anna Turnage
North Carolina State News Services
Edited By Joan Solsman
North
Carolina
State
University’s
College
of
Education
has
released
“SeniorSurf,” a tutorial designed
by educational psychology students to help senior citizens
learn how to use computers.
Students from Jason Osborne’s
fall 2003 Educational Psychology
304 class were challenged to find a
project that would help the community and apply what they were
learning in a real-world setting.
Students decided to create a
tutorial to help seniors learn on
their own or with an instructor
in a group setting.
The tutorial is available for
download online. In addition, CDROM tutorials will be delivered
to senior centers across Wake
County.
The tutorial contains 11 lesson
plans organized by level: beginner, intermediate and advanced.
The beginner lessons are paperbased, since they introduce
things like turning on a computer, using a mouse and understanding the parts of a computer.
The intermediate lessons discuss
e-mail and the Internet. The
advanced lessons teach participants to send e-cards, manage
files and use a scanner.
The project was a learning tool
for the students and will provide
a free service to a group not often
reached, said Rachelle Ornan, an
N.C. State doctoral student and
the teaching assistant leading the
class project.
“This project helped the students apply their teaching skills
to a different kind of group,” she
said. “The biggest challenge was
trying to teach them to think outside themselves. … They had to
think like someone who has
never used a computer before.”
Although the class ended last
semester, Ornan’s new class
plans to review the first version
of the tutorial and continue to
make improvements.
The online tutorial includes a
feedback form to make suggestions and comments about the
first version.
“We hope that these tutorials
provide the encouragement and
training that seniors need to
become increasingly connected
to the world, their friends and
families,” Ornan said.
On the web at http://www.
ced.ncsu.edu/seniorsurf.
our ongoing efforts to build a
solid community of interest
around this great institution.”
NCCU’s revitalized Annual
Fund
Campaign
will
be
announced during the scheduled
‘Sky Show.’ Thereafter,the Office
of Institutional Advancement
will implement a schedule to
solicit contributions three times
a year in an effort to get alumni,
corporations, and local businesses to build NCCU into their annual contribution budgets.
“We want to establish cyclical patterns of giving,” said Clark. “We’re
not only going to target alumni who
launched their careers here, but also
vendors, businesses and the broader
corporate community.”
Page designed by: Molly
Freedman
The Chapel Hill Whoopee
xxxday, Month, 2004, Page 4
Type of news
Page designed by:
The Chapel Hill Whoopee
Friday, Feb. 27, 2004, Page 5
In Brief
Compiled by Jayme Elrod from
The Associated Press
Bank robber
generous at local bars
WILMINGTON — A North
Carolina man was arrested for
bank robbery after reports that
he was drinking and buying
drinks for others at a nearby
bar and then that he had broken
into a couple’s home.
Arthur Jay Goulette, 35, of
Burgaw, was being held under
$100,000 bond at the New
Hanover County Jail, charged
with armed robbery and firstdegree burglary.
He’s accused of robbing a
branch of the Bank of America
shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Police later received reports
that a man fitting the bank robber’s description was at
Barbary Coast spending $100
bills, police department spokeswoman Linda Rawley said.
A bartender said Wednesday
a man who called himself “A.J.”
came into the business shortly
after 4 p.m. and was buying
patrons drinks and “tipping
well,” and stayed there drinking for several hours.
As police scanned the area,
they received another report of
the suspect’s location. Shortly
after 11 p.m., officers received a
report of a break-in at a home.
Jerome Lewis said he and his
wife were in bed when someone
entered their home, according
to a police report. When the
man encountered Lewis, he
shouted, “I’ve got money” and
ran toward Lewis.
Lewis, 39, ran out of the
home. Goulette fled as police
arrived, and he was arrested
after a foot chase.
Unfit facility may be
cause of animal virus
MONROE — A virus that has
broken out in the Union County
Animal Shelter will force the
deaths of dozens of puppies
and halt adoptions until midMarch, shelter staffers said.
Maggie Nelson, the shelter’s
lead animal control officer, said
Wednesday that the unidentified, airborne virus may have
thrived because of an inadequate facility. The shelter’s
unsealed floors and exposed
insulation make it difficult to
properly clean and disinfect the
building, she said.
A veterinarian who examined the sick puppies could not
identify the virus, Nelson said.
The shelter will be cleaned
with chlorine repeatedly over the
next two to three weeks, Nelson
said. It will remain open to the
public, but shelter staffers are
discouraging pet owners from
dropping off animals.
Aiken’s ‘Idol’
clothes on exhibit
RALEIGH — The white
Italian-made shirt, black pinstriped pants and shoes that
singer Clay Aiken wore in an
early round of “American Idol”
will be exhibited at the N.C.
Museum of History beginning
March 2.
“Today’s popular culture
often becomes tomorrow’s history; we are pleased to have
objects connected to Clay
Aiken’s early success,” said
Elizabeth F. Buford, director of
the history museum and the
Division of State History
Museums.
Aiken donated the clothes,
which will be on exhibit until
Sept. 6, then become part of the
museum’s permanent collection.
New Englanders
wage doughnut war
By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer
NEWINGTON, Conn. —
Along a stretch of highway dotted with adult bookstores, gun
shops and cut-rate motels, a
group of residents is fighting
back against a Krispy Kreme
Doughnuts shop.
The small but relentless band
of neighbors, which lost its bid
to keep New England’s first
Krispy Kreme from opening
here in 2002, regrouped last
month with a late-night reconnaissance campaign.
Krispy Kreme, it turned out,
was selling its signature glazed
confections to nearby supermarkets under the cover of
night and in violation of its
town permit. Neighbors caught
it all on film: the truckers loading up the doughnuts and hauling them to nearby grocery
stores before dawn.
At a town zoning hearing
Wednesday on the proposed
permit change, Krispy Kreme
franchise
owner
Janice
Matthews admitted she made a
mistake to sell doughnuts
wholesale without first seeking
a change in the town permit.
Area residents greeted the
Krispy Kreme store with great
fanfare in 2002. Customers
camped outside and traffic
clogged the highway.
Neighbors now say the
doughnut shop is worse than
other businesses on the highway. They cite traffic, garbage,
a bad smell and noise.
“Growing up, I had cows next
door to me,” said Lori
Dubowsky, a fourth-generation
Newington resident. “Now
there’s doughnuts.”
Page designed by: Jayme
Elrod
State
Errors and weight
contributed to crash
By LESLIE MILLER
The Associated Press
Edited by Allison Lewis
WASHINGTON — A maintenance error combined with too
much weight in the back of the
plane led to the crash of US
Airways Express Flight 5481 last
year at the Charlotte-Douglas
International Airport, federal
investigators said Thursday.
All 21 people aboard were killed
in the crash, the deadliest in the
United States in nearly 2 1/2 years.
The National Transportation
Safety Board recommended the
Federal Aviation Administration
order changes in maintenance procedures and the way airlines determine weight and load distribution.
The twin-engine Beech 1900
commuter plane operated by Air
Midwest took off normally on
Jan. 8, 2003. Within seconds, however, its nose pitched up sharply.
The aircraft stalled, and plummeted into a maintenance hangar. The
plane was headed for Greer, S.C.
Lorenda Ward, the investigator
in charge of the National
Transportation Safety Board
probe, said improperly rigged
cables that controlled the aircraft’s up-and-down motion combined with improper weight distribution led to the crash.
The pilots estimated the plane
was within its 100 pounds limit
New job,
pay, for
Russo
The Associated Press
Edited by Jenni Norman
CARTHAGE — A school superintendent who was cleared of
allegations that he used state
money to pay students who
scored well on SAT exams is taking a lower paying job in a larger
school district in Virginia.
The former Moore County
Schools Superintendent Patrick
Russo accepted the job in the
Hampton, Va., city school system.
“Obviously, I’m excited and
looking forward to the opportunity and challenges,” Russo said
Wednesday.
Russo, 53, will earn about
$155,000 a year, plus a benefits
package, said Hampton City
School Board Chairman Lennie
Routten.
Questions about Russo’s past,
including his possible involvement in last year’s SAT controversy and exclusive vending contracts, led Hampton school board
members to question whether to
offer him the job.
Routten said in a statement
the board “felt highly satisfied
with Dr. Russo’s responses”
regarding questions about the
controversies.
The board voted 5-1 to hire
Russo after spending several
hours discussing the matter
behind closed doors Sunday.
Russo came to Moore County
as superintendent in 1999. Last
year, he was accused of altering
documents that showed how state
money was used to pay students
who scored well on the SAT.
He was cleared of any wrongdoing.
AP Photo
Cause of the crash: A maintenance error and improper
weight distribution led to the crash of US Airways Express
Flight 5481, which killed all 21 passengers, on Jan. 8, 2003.
when it took off. The cockpit
voice recorder transcripts show
Capt. Katie Leslie and co-pilot
Jonathan Gibbs discussed the
issue on the runway. Their conversation turned frantic as the
plane took off.
“Help me,” Leslie said. Gibbs
swore.
“Oh, my God,” said Leslie, who
then radioed the control tower,
“We have an emergency.”
A child yelled, “Daddy!”
Warning horns sounded. “Pull
the power back,” Leslie said. “Oh
my God.”
Investigators said the plane’s
tail was too heavy because of the
distribution of passengers and
bags. Too much weight can change
a small plane’s center of gravity
and make it much more difficult
to fly. The pilots could not compensate because the cables did not
have their full range of motion
due to the maintenance errors.
The Chapel Hill Whoopee
Friday, Feb. 27 , 2004, Page 6
In Brief
Compiled from the Associated
Press by Tricia Horatio
United Auto workers
go on strike
DETROIT — United Auto
Workers members at a
supplier’s plants in Michigan
and New York went on strike
Thursday after a contract
covering 6,500 hourly
employees expired.
American Axle &
Manufacturing expects to
continue contract talks, which
began in December, s aid
company spokeswoman Carrie
Gray.
The previous four-year
contract expired Wednesday.
Talks stalled over whether
the company could close plants
at will, as well as how much
money it should put into a supplemental fund for unemployed
or laid-off workers, said Wendy
Thompson, president of UAW
Local 235, which represents
workers in Detroit.
Gray said it wasn’t immediately clear how the
company’s operations would
be affected by the strike or
how many workers were participating.
Spun off from General
Motors Corp. in 1994,
American Axle builds axles,
gears, drivelines and related
products. The strike includes
workers at plants in Detroit
and Three Rivers, Mich.; and
Buffalo, Tonawanda and
Cheektowaga, N.Y.
Peterson wins and
loses in court
MODESTO, Calif. — Scott
Peterson is free to sell his story
to the movies or make book
deals, a judge ruled Wednesday,
despite the objections of
Peterson’s slain wife’s mother.
Meanwhile, another judge
ruled Thursday that the jury at
Peterson’s murder trial will
not be sequestered, despite
warnings from the defense
about the public’s fascination
with the case.
Sharon Rocha, Laci
Peterson’s mother, asked the
court to keep any payments
from commercial use of
Peterson’s story in a trust
account until a verdict is
reached.
Superior Court Judge Roger
Beauchesne said Wednesday’s
ruling was tentative and could
be changed.
“It’s a minor setback to
victims’ rights, but it’s
certainly not the final word on
the issue.” said Adam Stewart,
Rocha’s lawyer.
Peterson’s lawyer Matt
Geragos would not say whether
his client is negotiating the
sale of his story.
The judge overseeing the
murder case, Alfred A.
Delucchi, said Thursday: “The
jury will be permitted to go
home every night with an
admonishment, and we’ll see
what happens.”
The judge also denied
Geragos’ request for two juries.
Peterson 31, is accused of
killing his wife, Laci, and
unborn child in December 2002
and could get the death penalty
if convicted.
Jury selection is expected to
begin next week
Smith & Wesson
chairman retires
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The
new chairman of the board of
Smith & Wesson’s parent
company resigned following
reports that he committed a
string of armed robberies in
the 1950s and 1960s.
James Joseph Minder, who
had been an outside director of
Smith & Wesson Holding Corp.,
said he submitted his resignation voluntarily at a directors
meeting this week.
“I felt it was the best thing
for the company, given the circumstances,” Minder, 74, told
The Republican newspaper in
Springfield.
The newspaper said the gun
maker was expected to name a
replacement on Friday.
The resignation by Minder,
who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz.,
came three weeks after The
Arizona Republic reported that
he had spent more than 10
years in Michigan prisons in
the 1950s and 1960s for a string
of armed robberies and an
attempted prison escape.
Minder said he didn’t
disclose his criminal past to
the other directors of the 150year-old gun company prior to
his election as chairman in
mid-January.
“Nobody asked,” he said,
adding that he had turned his
life around in the 30 years
since his release from prison.
Minder was named to Smith
& Wesson’s board after serving
on the board of Saf-T-Hammer,
the Scottsdale company that
acquired Smith & Wesson in
2001.
Following his release from
prison,
Minder
founded
Spectrum Human Services, a
nonprofit agency serving delinquent and disabled Michigan
youths, and ran it for 20 years
before retiring to Arizona in
1997.
In Scottsdale, he was president and chief operating officer of Amherst Consulting Co.,
a management consulting
firm.
Page designed by: tricia
Horatio
Nation
The Chapel Hill Whoopee
New Columbine evidence shown
By Robert Weller
Associated Press Writer
Edited by Joan Solsman
LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Authorities had at
least 15 contacts with the Columbine High
School killers dating back two years before
their murderous attack, the state attorney
general said Thursday.
Ken Salazar also said he is investigating
whether authorities tried to cover up what
they knew about the rampage.
He did not blame the Jefferson County
sheriff ’s office for missing warning signs
about Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. He said
he found no evidence of negligence.
Harris, 18, and Klebold, 17, killed 12 students
and a teacher before taking their own lives at
the school near Littleton on April 20, 1999. It is
the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
The attorney general said his investigation
is not complete and has grown from a request
to look into contacts between the killers and
investigators two years before the attack.
Asked if he thought there was a cover-up,
he said: “I do not know today.” Speaking in a
room with families of the victims, Salazar
promised to issue a supplemental report.
Salazar said his investigators looked at
sheriff ’s officials’ reactions to 1997 complaints
about Harris, from a snowball that cracked a
car window to a prank telephone call.
There were more ominous signs, too.
Authorities have said an anonymous tip that
year led a deputy to a Web site run by Harris.
The Web site indicated the two teens had
built pipe bombs and said: “Now our only
problem is to find the place that will be
‘ground zero.’”
Authorities also released two videos. The
first was the anxious scene in a park across
the street from the school that day. The other
was a 90-minute compilation of videos made
by Harris and Klebold.
Much of the material is headed for the state
archives. Relatives of the dead and survivors
of the horrific attack saw much of it for the
first time in a private viewing Wednesday.
“When you read about the number of bullets that were shot and you read about the
number of guns, it’s one thing,” Darrell
Scott, whose daughter Rachel was killed, said
on NBC’s “Today.” “But when you walk into a
room and see the overwhelming numbers of
spent shells and bullets and pipe bombs and
knives, it was just an overwhelming sight.”
He said it was the first time he and his wife
saw the gun that killed his daughter.
A key part of Salazar’s investigation
looked at work done by former sheriff ’s
deputy John Hicks. Hicks looked into a 1998
complaint that Harris posted a death threat
against a fellow student on the Web site.
Randy and Judy Brown, whose son was
named in the threat, reported the information to the sheriff ’s office. A warrant was
drafted to search Harris’ home, but it was
never executed.
Hicks left the department in 2000 and now
lives in South Carolina.
Stocks still increasing
for troubled oil company
Shareholders
not worried
By Rachel Beck
AP Business Writer
Edited by Elizabeth Michalka
NEW YORK — As allegations of
widespread wrongdoing at oilservices giant Halliburton mount,
investors don’t seem to care.
Halliburton’s
shareholders
haven’t been fazed by the growing list of accusations targeting
the Houston-based company for
everything from price gouging to
bribery.
Since the Bush administration
took over nearly four years ago,
Halliburton has been in the spotlight, due in part to its ties with
Vice President Dick Cheney, who
was the company’s chairman
from 1995 to 2000.
The controversy surrounding
the company has intensified
because of its role in Iraq.
Questions have been raised over
its receipt of a $2.26 billion no-bid
U.S. lifts
Libyan
sanctions
Travel ban ended,
trade may resume
By Terence Hunt
The Associated Press
Edited by Nick Eberlein
WASHINGTON — The United
States lifted a 23-year-old ban on
travel to Libya on Thursday and
invited American companies to
begin planning their return.
The administration also encouraged Libya to establish an official
presence in Washington by opening a diplomatic interests office.
U.S. officials plan to expand their
diplomatic presence in Tripoli.
Allowing U.S. travel to Libya
would give American corporations
an opportunity to do lucrative
business legally in Libya’s rich oil
fields. It also would help Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi emerge
from semi-isolation.
U.S. firms that had holdings in
Libya before sanctions were
imposed were authorized to negotiate the terms of renewing their
operations, the White House said,
but the companies will be
required to obtain U.S. approval
of any agreement if economic
sanctions remain in place.
The United States has been
moving toward improved relations with Tripoli since Gadhafi
renounced the development of
weapons of mass destruction and
allowed inspectors to verify that
his country was abandoning its
weapons programs.
The White House said it would
“continuously evaluate the range
of bilateral sanctions that
remain in place relating to
Libya” as its government moves
toward totally dismantling its
weapons of mass destruction
programs and related missiles
projects and adheres to its renunciation of terrorism.
contract to rebuild Iraq’s oil industry. It is also facing allegations that
it overcharged millions of dollars
for its services, including for feeding troops and delivering fuel.
Its Kellogg, Brown & Root engineering and construction unit
reimbursed the Pentagon $6.3
million after disclosing that two
employees had taken kickbacks
from a Kuwaiti subcontractor in
return for work providing services to U.S. troops in Iraq.
Outside of Iraq, the company’s
alleged involvement in the payment of $180 million in bribes for
a contract in the 1990s for a natural gas project in Africa is under
investigation by U.S., French and
Nigerian officials. Halliburton is
also wrapping up a major asbestos
case, in which it would pay over $4
billion to settle plaintiffs’ claims.
Still, Halliburton’s investors
remain bullish. Its stock, which
now trades around $31 a share, is
up about 20 percent since the start
of the year and has gained about 34
percent in the last six months.
Shareholders are betting that
Halliburton’s troubles won’t have
much affect on its business or seriously crimp the bottom line.
“The headlines tell one story
about Halliburton, but you look
deeper into things, you can see
that these issues might not be
material to the business,” said
John Kartsonas, an oil and gas
analyst at Standard & Poor’s.
Instead, their buying has been
fueled by hopes of a bright future.
With energy prices remaining at
elevated levels, oil and gas companies will likely boost their capital
spending in the coming year. That
could greatly benefit Halliburton,
which derives around 60 percent of
its revenues and 80 percent of its
operating income from its energy
equipment and services division,
Kartsonas said.
Expectations for strong growth
are reflected in Wall Street’s optimism. About three-quarters of the
analysts covering Halliburton have
revised their first-quarter and yearend earnings estimates by more than
3.5 percent over the last month and
rate the stock with either a buy or
strong buy, according to independent
research firm StarMine.
Friday, February 27, 2004, Page 7
Entertainment
Page designed by:
Elizabeth Michalka
The Chapel Hill Whoopee
In Review
Compiled by Elizabeth Michalka
Big Bird’s travels
in Japan and China
rereleased on DVD
By Nancy Churnin
The Dallas Morning News
Unlike Bill Murray in “Lost
in Translation,” Big Bird
doesn’t find Scarlett Johansson
in “Big Bird in Japan.”
But he does find a lovely, if
mysterious, young Japanese
woman who helps him when he
loses his tour bus. She introduces him to Japanese
families, customs, stories and
language as they hurry to meet
up with his tour before it
departs for America.
“Big Bird in Japan,” originally released on VHS in 1991,
and “Big Bird
in China,”
originally
released on
VHS in 1987,
made their
overdue DVD
debuts Feb. 10.
Each DVD
has a somewhat
suspenseful
AP Photo
storyline that
drives their fas- Big Bird’s hits
cinating tours. teach
kids
In “Big Bird in
about diversity.
China,” Big
Bird seeks the
legendary Phoenix (so they can
talk bird to bird). But to find it,
he must first find four landmarks in China, including the
Great Wall. At each stop, the
Monkey King, a mischievous
figure famous among Chinese
children, gives him a clue
about what to do next.
The most exciting part of
each story is the chance to
meet the people of each
country. One of the most
charming is the little girl in
China who calls Big Bird “Da
Nao” and offers her help in his
search. But she also tells him
she can’t go until school lets
out. So Da Nao squeezes into a
classroom seat and learns to
write a Chinese character
while he waits.
Recent movie releases
on video and DVD
Ratings: 4 stars: Excellent; 3
stars: Good; 2 stars: Fair; 1 star:
Poor
(Videos with no stars were
not reviewed.)
SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME OVER
Buena Vista Home
Video/Dimension, ‘03
3 stars
$24.99 VHS; $29.99 DVD.
72 mins.
The second sequel featuring
the secret-agent Cortez clan
takes place in a virtual-reality
universe, where a digital despot
(Sylvester Stallone) plots to
control the minds of the world’s
youth. PG-13 (intense action,
scare scenes) (CC)
MATCHSTICK MEN
Warner Home Video, ‘03
3 stars
$19.96 VHS; $27.95 DVD.
116 mins.
Alison Lohman is so unaffected here as the girl who joins her
father, con man Nicolas Cage, in
the family business that she
produces the effect of making
everyone else look affected.
With Sam Rockwell. PG-13 (violence, sexual content, profanity)
THE MISSING
Columbia/TriStar, ‘03
3 stars
VHS; $28.95 DVD.
137 mins.
Cate Blanchett and Tommy
Lee Jones play an estranged
daughter and father in this compelling western about the hunt
for a missing girl in the
Southwest’s rugged mesa country. R (violence, profanity, adult
themes) No suggested retail price
was set for the VHS version.
CAMP
MGM, ‘03
2 stars
VHS; $29.98 DVD.
114 mins.
At Camp Ovation, a performing-arts facility for teens, the
kids’ pipes would be the envy of
Justin and Kelly. PG-13 (candor
about sex and sexual orientation,
profanity) No suggested retail
price was set for the VHS version.
MY LIFE WITHOUT ME
Sony/Columbia/TriStar,’03
3 stars
VHS; $24.96 DVD.
106 mins.
Sarah Polley stars as a hardworking young wife and mother
who finds out she’s going to die,
and then doesn’t tell anybody.
Refreshingly unmelodramatic. R
(profanity) No suggested retail
price was set for the VHS version.
OZ: THE COMPLETE
THIRD SEASON
HBO, ‘97
VHS; $64.98 DVD. 3 discs.
Features eight episodes, commentary from creator Tom
Fontana and deleted scenes. No
suggested retail price was set
for the VHS version.
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Favored: Sean Penn is Making history: Shohreh Watch out: Bill Murray, “Lost in Best Actress: For her role in
expected to win an Oscar Aghdashloo could be the first Translation,” could cause an “Monster,” Charlize Theron is
for his role in “Mystic River.” Iranian to win an Oscar.
upset in the best actor category. favored to take home an Oscar.
Oscar
nominees
The 76th annual Academy
Awards will be broadcast
beginning at 8 p.m. EST on
Sunday, Feb. 29.
BEST PICTURE
“The Lord of the Rings: The
Return of the King”
“Lost in Translation”
“Master and Commander:
The Far Side of the World”
“Mystic River”
“Seabiscuit”
ACTOR
Johnny Depp, “Pirates of
the Caribbean: The Curse
of the Black Pearl”
Ben Kingsley, “House of
Sand and Fog”
Jude Law, “Cold Mountain”
Bill Murray, “Lost in
Translation”
Sean Penn, “Mystic River”
ACTRESS
Keisha
Castle-Hughes,
“Whale Rider”
Diane Keaton, “Something’s
Gotta Give”
Samantha Morton, “In
America”
Charlize Theron, “Monster”
Naomi Watts, “21 Grams”
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alec Baldwin, “The Cooler”
Benicio Del Toro, “21 Grams”
Djimon
Hounsou,
“In
America”
Tim Robbins, “Mystic River”
Ken Watanabe, “The Last
Samurai”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Shohreh
Aghdashloo,
“House of Sand and Fog”
Patricia Clarkson, “Pieces of
April”
Marcia Gay Harden, “Mystic
River”
Holly Hunter, “Thirteen”
Renee Zellweger, “Cold
Mountain”
DIRECTOR
Fernando Meirelles, “City of
God”
Peter Jackson, “The Lord of
the Rings: The Return of
the King”
Sofia Coppola, “Lost in
Translation”
Peter Weir, “Master and
Commander: The Far Side
of the World”
Clint Eastwood, “Mystic
River”
FOREIGN FILM
“The Barbarian Invasions,”
Canada
“Zelary,” Czech Republic
“The Twilight Samurai,” Japan
“Twin
Sisters,”
The
Netherlands
“Evil,” Sweden
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Brother Bear”
“Finding Nemo”
“The Triplets of Belleville”
ORIGINAL SONG
“Into the West” from “The
Lord of the Rings: The
Return of the King,” Fran
Walsh, Howard Shore and
Annie Lennox
“A Kiss at the End of the
Rainbow” from “A Mighty
Wind,” Michael McKean
and Annette O’Toole
“Scarlet Tide” from “Cold
Mountain,” T Bone Burnett
and Elvis Costello
“Belleville Rendez-vous”
from “The Triplets of
Belleville,” Benoit Charest
and Sylvain Chomet
“You Will Be My Ain True Love”
from “Cold Mountain,” Sting
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“Balseros”
“Capturing the Friedmans”
“The Fog of War”
“My Architect”
“The Weather Underground”
Winners predictable
at Academy Awards
Categories
full of talent,
but no upsets
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Edited by Kendra Allen
Sean Penn showed up at the
Academy Awards nominees
luncheon accompanied by his
mother. This is surprising not
because Penn has a mother but
because he is typically disdainful
of Hollywood ritual and awards
ceremonies.
Penn, who received his fourth
Oscar nomination for best actor
with his performance in “Mystic
River,” failed to appear at the
yearly party that is the Golden
Globes, and his absence there had
been widely perceived as proof he
still wasn’t playing along.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that
if the nominee appears disinterested, Oscar voters take it personally. But there was Penn at the
luncheon, making nice, repeating
that it was all about supporting
his director, Clint Eastwood.
And ladies and gentlemen, the
winner is ...
This could be reason enough to
stay awake for all but the last 15
minutes of Sunday’s 76th annual
Academy Awards (8 p.m. EST,
ABC), which will be shown on a
five-second delay in case host
Billy Crystal decides out of solidarity with the anti-Mel Gibson
crowd to show us how Jewish he
really is. While the delay will prevent any Janet Jackson-esque
nudity, producer Joe Roth has
said it will not be used to censor
political dissent. If Penn chooses
to use his acceptance speech to
criticize the U.S. occupation of
Iraq to a U.S. television audience
of more than 30 million, it could
get interesting.
On the other hand, Penn,
despite all his youthful indiscretion and anger management
issues, is a stand-up guy. That
means that if he really does
respect the famously Republican
Eastwood, he’ll graciously praise
the director and get off the stage.
Maybe he’ll let his co-star and
supporting actor nominee Tim
Robbins do the heavy lifting.
Internet scribe and industry
watcher David Poland noted on
the Movie City News Web site
last week, it feels as if this year’s
Academy Awards were already
over. Poland pointed out that
even as we gear up to make our
final predictions, the pre-anointed best director winner, Peter
Jackson, is in New Zealand doing
pre-production on his remake of
“King Kong,” the follow-up to
this year’s best picture winner,
“The Lord of the Rings: The
Return of the King.”
If you were looking for suspense, you won’t find it in this
preview, or at this year’s ceremony, where the five major prizes
are all but locked up.
Surprises, sure, there will be a
few; there always are. But without making too many puns on the
words “Lord” and “King,” this
looks more like a coronation
than
a
competition.
The
Academy will not be honoring
one over 3-hour movie as the
year’s best — though it is certainly one of them — it will be honoring a 9-hour epic, and that’s not
even counting those extended
special editions, which represent
the director’s complete vision.
No trilogy ever has delivered like
“Lord of the Rings” has on every
conceivable level, and Eastwood
already has an Oscar. Not the
way it should work, maybe, but
the way it really does.
So if the predictions below
seem predictable, blame an exceptionally good year at the movies,
which is pretty hard to deny if you
simply look at what is missing
from the nominees: No “House of
Sand and Fog” or “21 Grams” on
the best picture list. No Jennifer
Connelly (“House of Sand and
Fog”) or Scarlett Johansson (“Lost
in Translation”) for best actress,
or Russell Crowe (“Master and
Commander”) for best actor. No
Kevin Bacon (“Mystic River”) or
Peter Sarsgaard (“Shattered
Glass”) for supporting actor. No
Melissa Leo (“21 Grams”) for supporting actress, and no Jim
Sheridan (“In America”) for best
director.
SUPPORTING ACTOR: The
impeccable casting of “Mystic
River” and the exceptionally
high quality of the performances
speak not only to the skills of
director Clint Eastwood, but also
to the need for a best ensemble
performance category. That said,
Tim Robbins’ portrayal of a man
trapped in his own abused,
uncomfortable body was the soul
of “Mystic River” and he
deserves the honor.
SUPPORTING
ACTRESS:
Again, a remarkably strong field,
even if you believe that Renee
Zellweger was way over the top
with the Mammy Yokum shtick
in “Cold Mountain.” Had Scarlett
Johansson been nominated in
this category, she would have had
real competition. There is still an
outside chance that veteran
Iranian
actress
Shohreh
Aghdashloo, the first actor from
her country to ever be nominated, could win. My heart would be
with Marcia Gay Harden as
Robbins’ conflicted wife in
“Mystic River,” but my money
will be on Zellweger, in part
because she lost last year.
ACTOR: Johnny Depp is brilliant in “Pirates of the Caribbean,”
but the year he chooses to go
Hollywood is the year Hollywood
goes tragic. Jude Law was the best
thing about Anthony Minghella’s
handsome, intelligent but oddly
uninspired adaptation of “Cold
Mountain,” but he has already said
he would vote for Sean Penn. Ben
Kingsley is chillingly effective in
“House of Sand and Fog,” but
Penn’s serious competition is Bill
Murray. And while Murray may be
every bit as cynical about
Hollywood as Penn, he did show up
to pick up his Golden Globe. If
there is an upset here, this will be
it.
ACTRESS:
After
seeing
“Something’s Gotta Give,” I told
anyone who would listen that
Diane Keaton was a cinch to win.
But I hadn’t seen “Monster.”
Underneath all the makeup and
weight that Charlize Theron put
on to play serial killer Aileen
Wuornos is a true marvel of a
performance, one that leaves you
feeling empathy for Wuornos —
whether she deserves it or not.
DIRECTOR: Think about it:
While Peter Jackson was much
admired for the humor and
audacity he brought to little-seen
low-budget movies, his entire reputation prior to “The Lord of the
Rings” rested on his imaginative,
unsettling 1994 drama “Heavenly
Creatures.” There is minor upset
potential in the form of “Lost in
Translation”
director
Sofia
Coppola, but considering the
quality of this and her overlooked
debut, “The Virgin Suicides,” she
is going to have a few more
chances to stand on that stage.
FILM: “The Lord of the Rings:
The Return of the King.” Go to bed.
KRT Photo
Oscar hopeful: Ben Kingsley,
up for best actor, attends the
nominees luncheon on Feb. 9.