Two arrested in pit
A disturbance in Davis Library shortly after 1 p.m. led to a ruckus in the Pit and the arrests of two Hillsborough teens.
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A disturbance in Davis Library shortly after 1 p.m. led to a ruckus in the Pit and the arrests of two Hillsborough teens.
Chancellor Holden Thorp is patiently waiting for the announcement of his new boss.Thorp and others invested in the search to replace UNC-system President Erskine Bowles have contributed their fill of recommendations for what they would like to see in the next system president. R. William Funk and Associates served as consultants, and the next president’s salary was set at a maximum of $550,000.Now it’s time to expand the applicant pool and attract as many top-notch candidates as possible to replace Bowles during continually challenging economic times.“I think that we’re in for a quiet phase right now,” said Board of Governors Chairwoman Hannah Gage, the chief spokeswoman for the presidential search process.“We’re hoping that we will have a really vibrant pool by mid- to late-July.”“Right now we’re just generating interest, making calls, connecting with people and soliciting input,” she said.The Leadership Statement Committee crafted a description of the type of candidate they would like to attract, and it’s a candidate that might not necessarily exist.“Every single one of us would love for another Erskine Bowles to appear … with the deep North Carolina ties and commitment to the state, and commitment to the university system,” Gage said.“The cold hard reality is, however, right now, we don’t see the next Erskine Bowles, at least clearly.”Bowles took charge of the system just in time to manage the economic crisis and the series of budget cuts that ensued.Coming from a business and political management background, Bowles was able to create efficiencies and make cuts that wouldn’t impinge on the classroom, most notably cutting 900 administrative jobs in the 2009-10 budget season.With that success in mind, relative to other state university systems — like the University of California system, which had to raise tuition by 32 percent to close budget gaps last year — the search committee is looking for someone with experience in managing complex organizations.“There are some extraordinary presidents and chancellors around the country right now that are challenged by the economic landscape,” Gage said.“I think that there is an advantage in having an individual that has managed complex organizations in the past, because … they’ve learned to do more with less. They have had to justify the cost of everything that they’ve done.”But while legislators and board members want managerial experience, faculty and staff want an academic background.“I think there are a lot of faculty and staff who feel strongly that it be somebody who also has a background in higher education,” Thorp said.“It’s hard to find both. They’ll have a difficult job trying to figure out which of these priorities are most important.”Gage said the next president must be able to manage continued cuts to the system’s $7.4 billion budget.“I think we’re looking at another two or three legislative sessions that are going to be very, very challenging,” Gage said. “The next hurdle is getting through the next year when the federal stimulus money is withdrawn,” she said. “I don’t think that we’re out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination.”Applications are already coming in, and the next step is to review them, narrow the pool and ultimately recommend one or more finalists to the Board of Governors.Gage said she is confident that Bill Funk, who helped find Thorp in a nationwide search, will bring in the right candidate for the job, regardless of whether their background is in politics, business or academics.“We may find that there is a very strong candidate with an academic background that also has managed complex operations,” Gage said.“I think that it’s impossible to predict where we’ll end up.”Contact the State & National Editor at stnt@unc.edu.
Jack Cox gets most of his oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, selling them to restaurants across the country when North Carolina oysters aren’t in season.Since BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded April 20, his fishermen have been out of work as 210,000 gallons of oil spilled out of the ocean floor every day.“It’s definitely affected our business tremendously, because we buy a lot of oysters out of the gulf,” said Cox, owner of Crystal Coast Fisheries, a wholesale fishing company based in Morehead City, N.C.“We get (oysters) out of the gulf this time of year, so our oyster prices just skyrocket,” he said.But his usual providers haven’t been allowed to harvest many oysters since the oil rig exploded, threatening to wash oil onto the shores of gulf states and infiltrate delicate ecosystems serving as the homes of profitable shellfish.Even so, many gulf fishermen Cox knows are still in favor of offshore drilling, and so is Cox.“Oil rigs are a great habitat for fish, a tremendous amount of seafood comes off those oil rigs,” Cox said, adding that he would support off-shore drilling in N.C. waters.“They still want oil rigs, they just want them to be regulated so things like this don’t happen again and have the mess kept up,” he said of his fishing colleagues in the gulf.The Obama administration had just lifted a ban on offshore drilling when the BP oil rig exploded.Companies would’ve been able to apply for permits as soon as 2012 to drill off of the North Carolina coast.But the moratorium is back on until at least May 28 as Congress investigates oil rig regulations.Congress is working to better regulate the Mineral Management Service agency, which would lease North Carolina waters to oil companies.The agency failed to inspect the Deepwater Horizon rig monthly, according to its own policy, and allowed BP to get by without reviewing its Deepwater Horizon disaster plan, according to Associated Press investigations.In a survey released last week by Public Policy Polling, support of offshore drilling among North Carolina voters dropped markedly since the April 20 explosion.“The support for oil drilling seems to have dropped more in North Carolina than we have found nationally,” said Dustin Ingalls, assistant to the director of Public Policy Polling.Support dropped from 61 percent in April to 47 percent in May, with 50 percent of voters less likely to support drilling after the gulf oil spill.“It’s too much of a gamble for our treasured coasts,” said Drew Ball, director of government relations with the N.C. Sierra Club.“Virginia was poised to move, (to drill) and thankfully this moratorium has stopped that for the time being,” Ball said. “That is a serious threat to the N.C. coast — so that’s a fight we’re going to have to wage.“We’re not going to find the answer to our energy needs at the bottom of an oil well,” Ball said.“North Carolina is poised to be a leader on wind energy off the coast … which is a much more long-term and sustainable investment for our state.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Bill Pittman dismissed a lawsuit today filed by parents and students against the Wake County Board of Education for violating the N.C. Open Meetings Law.
Despite expecting new budget cuts of 3.9 percent in addition to a 2 percent cut already laid out for the UNC system, the Board of Governors approved a salary raise for system President Erskine Bowles’ successor.
The N.C. General Assembly convened Wednesday to begin hashing out more budget cuts during the short session this summer, and all levels of state education are looking at cuts that would affect students and faculty.The K-12 public schools, community colleges and the UNC system are looking at significant cuts for the fiscal year to begin July 1, 2010.While the state already approved the 2009-11 budget, extra cuts will be made this session for the fiscal year 2010-11 to compensate for a $1.2 billion shortfall.
The benches outside of the county health clinic in Chapel Hill are filled with people waiting for the bus: a college graduate with a criminal background who got her license taken away; a self-employed hairdresser who can’t afford a car; a disabled man who can’t drive. Those waiting for the bus at Southern Human Services represent the dynamic reasons that lead patients to seek primary health care services from the Orange County Health Department.With one clinic in Hillsborough and one in Chapel Hill, health services are stretching the budget.Members of the Orange County Board of Commissioners are starting to ask where costs can be cut and whether reducing services to only one county health clinic might make the most long-term sense.They could decide as early as June to give up the dental clinic in Carrboro when its lease in Carr Mill Mall is up, in October 2011, and shift all dental services to Hillsborough.But the question of consolidating primary care is more long-term.With patients arguing for access to health care services and county officials arguing for cost efficiency, the future of the health department is up for debate.The role of county healthMegan Hucks spent most of January and February in rehab for a heroine addiction.With a criminal record related to her drug abuse, Hucks said she can’t find a job worthy of the degrees she received two years ago from the UNC-Greensboro.“I wish I had insurance and a job with benefits. But especially as someone with a criminal background and as a recovering addict, I can’t even volunteer.”People like Hucks — adults who don’t have children or a disability and therefore don’t qualify for Medicaid and have outgrown their parents’ insurance — often seek free and reduced services at county health clinics.County health departments are mandated by the federal government to assure that citizens have access to primary care services, and in rural areas like northern Orange County, the county itself often takes on the role of provider.“The mandate is not that the county necessarily provides primary care; it’s that they insure that people have access to primary care, which may be through them as a provider of last resort,” said Becky Slifkin, director of the N.C. Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center.In northern Orange County, there are fewer primary care physicians who will see uninsured or Medicaid patients than in the southern part of the county.“Typically there is less access to primary care in rural communities. It’s sort of all the obvious things you would expect when you have low population density … where highly trained professionals might not want to go settle,” Slifkin said.But Slifkin said these issues could be hugely affected by the federal health reform bill, and people like Hucks could qualify for Medicaid.Slifkin said that when Medicaid expansions take effect during the next four years, people like Hucks might not have to depend on county health providers, and the county might not have to provide for her.“What about in four years when health reform is fully implemented and the number of uninsured drops drastically? It’ll be interesting to see what happens to community health centers.”Choice means everythingFor now, having two health department locations in the county has helped make things a little bit more convenient for Hucks.Born and raised in Chapel Hill, Hucks visited Southern Human Services to get subsidized birth control when she was in high school, but she said it was always too difficult to get an appointment.“It’s kind of a lottery,” Hucks said about the Chapel Hill-based clinic.So Hucks chose to go to the Whitted Human Services Center in Hillsborough for her gynecological check up last year. She said the staff was more attentive, and she could get an appointment the day of.“It’s hell to get to Hillsborough,” she said. Hucks has asked friends for rides, so far avoiding the bus that drops off patients blocks from Whitted.“If they did what they do in Hillsborough here, it’d be easier,” she said.Transportation is a key access question for patients, county officials and health care providers.Wayne Sherman, personal health services director for the county, said public transit has made it easy to access services in Chapel Hill and harder in Hillsborough.“The southern part has a bus service that goes directly to the front door of the building,” Sherman said. “But the bus between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough drops people off far away from Whitted.”Mary Vilane is an Air Force veteran who lives and works in Chapel Hill but finds it difficult to get to Durham, where the veteran clinic is.Self-employed and without a car, Vilane is considering switching her health care to Southern Human Services, which has a direct bus line to and from downtown Chapel Hill, instead of heading to Durham.“It’s easier to come here. Hillsborough is just too far away. But another problem is social services is in the same building,” Vilane said, adding that she’s worried about how much more congested social and health care services could get if the county chose to consolidate.“Two clinics would be more convenient with the amount of people in Chapel Hill. Every city should have its own location,” she said.County strapped for funds“Projected revenues for next year are about $4 million less than they were this fiscal year, and the expenses are somewhere in the number of 8 to 10 million anticipated dollars more,” said Orange County Manager Frank Clifton.County commissioners are looking to cut a little bit everywhere.The health department has compiled the numbers of where people live in relation to the clinics they visit to determine which clinic is most utilized and whether one can be cut.While 3,732 people visited Whitted between July 2008 and June 2009, and 4,290 people visited Southern Human Services in that same time period, the data points toward the trend that the county is successfully reaching its population.Sherman said he hopes that if the county does eventually consolidate services, it wouldn’t reduce patient access to care.“The county has supported the two-site service model for years. But in light of current economic conditions, it would be more cost-efficient to pay for one site,” he said. “We’re waiting to see where (the commissioners) want to go,” Sherman said, adding that he hopes the ultimate decision will not cut services.“If we were to go to a one-clinic site, would we be able to keep the same staff and services? Serve the same amount of people?” Sherman asked.One size does not fit allAnother question is whether other, non-county-run clinics accepting low-income and Medicaid patients can provide primary health care in place of the county itself.UNC Hospitals is looking at opening a branch in Hillsborough, which would likely involve some level of charity outpatient care, potentially offsetting the need for clinical services from Hillsborough.In the Chapel Hill area, Piedmont Health Services, a federally funded community clinic, serves low-income and Medicaid patients. The Student Health Action Coalition, a free clinic run by medical and dental students, provides free clinics. Both offset some of the need for county health services.Clifton said the health department has been in touch with other public health providers to figure out where services do and don’t overlap.From a cost perspective, it makes sense to collaborate, Clifton said.“The people of Orange County have an array of services available that a lot of counties don’t have. We’re open to any of those kinds of partnerships — any method that delivers quality services in a quality manner.”
As political candidates get busy with grassroots campaigning this summer, the race for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 4th district is looking eerily familiar.B.J. Lawson is back as the Republican candidate, again challenging 11th term U.S. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., for the 4th district.Lawson is again confident he can unseat an entrenched Democrat in a heavily Democratic district — the 4th represents all of Orange and Durham counties, as well as parts of Wake and Chatham counties.Price defeated Lawson on a 63-36 margin in 2008. With only about 400 people signed up to volunteer in his 2008 campaign, Lawson now estimates his volunteers at 800.“I think we’re going to win this time,” Lawson said in an interview.“I just think more people are concerned about the direction our country’s going, and there’s a growing sense across the political spectrum that Washington is no longer working for the American people.”Lawson cited the health care reform bill, the Food Safety Modernization Act and the cap-and-trade legislation as bills that gave the federal government too much power and that Price voted for.“Washington doesn’t see patients, Washington doesn’t grow food. We have to empower good local producers,” Lawson said.Running on the Republican ticket with a Libertarian bent, Lawson is well-known for passing out pocket versions of the U.S. Constitution.He said his campaign is not a partisan conversation, rather, it’s a conversation about who should be regulating people: federal or local governments.Lawson said the food safety act is a great example of unnecessary federal regulation.“We already have a North Carolina Department of Agriculture. We already regulate stuff at the state level,” Lawson said.Lauren Knapp Resnik, president of the Northern Orange Republican Women, said she thinks name recognition from 2008 will help Lawson defeat Price this time.“The galvanizing conservative movement sweeping the nation — and even Democrats distancing themselves from the current administration and affiliates — gives Lawson a strong chance of unseating (Price),” Resnik stated in an e-mail.N.C. Democrats are well-aware of this conservative movement.In a forum at Carol Woods Retirement Community on Monday, N.C. Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange, voiced her concerns that Democrats could lose seats in November.“The problem is in this coming election, young people who were excited in 2008 have been disappointed. Democrats are in big-time trouble,” Kinnaird said as an appeal to supporters.The Price campaign is confident that he will win an 11th term.“Critical issues such as getting our economy back on track, job creation, financial regulatory reform and fiscal balance are on the table,” Price stated in an e-mail. “I look forward to engaging with constituents on these and other matters in the months ahead.”Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Finding work and getting paid for it has been an unending struggle for the day laborers of Carrboro. And relief, whether in the form of policy or advocacy, is not on the immediate horizon.Operating as a job-search resource, El Centro Latino, the Latino community’s chief advocate that closed in November, has been sorely missed by workers, policymakers and advocates alike.Now, as the community awaits the delayed opening of El Centro Hispano, the Durham-based Latino center that was scheduled to open April 1, the conversation on how to assist day laborers has been stalled.The Carrboro Board of Aldermen began researching how to craft an ordinance to criminalize wage theft earlier this year. The board also has begun looking into the possibility of founding a day labor center.But the lack of a Latino community advocate has seriously delayed the process, day laborers and government officials agree.In need of a centerA day laborer who works in carpentry, Bernardo Morales works on a day-to-day basis.Chasing trucks at the corner of Jones Ferry Road and Davie Road hasn’t been easy, he said.“We need a work center where there are bathrooms, where we can wait. Somewhere that employers can register and workers can list their skills,” Morales said in Spanish.Rafael Gallegos, associate director of the Chapel Hill & Carrboro Human Rights Center, which provides some resources for day laborers, said selling a skill set on the corner has its difficulties.“There’s not a whole lot of negotiation that goes on once they stop, because it’s just too overwhelming,” he said, adding that it isn’t beneficial to day laborers with specific skills.“The way they see this job is entrepreneurial. You are what you know,” he said.While the corner is well known to a distinct few employers, Morales’ roommate, Efren Cisneros, said he worries that new businesses might be repelled by a corner culture they don’t know.“It’s dangerous for us and for the employers,” Cisneros said, referring to how workers rush the trucks, jockeying to earn a day’s wages.At the same time, the corner evolved for a reason, and moving it could have unintended consequences, Gallegos said.“Businesses know it’s here, and that’s why when we talk about the day labor center, we sort of stalled,” he said. “We wanted to relocate them but it’s hard to move cause this is so well known.”Nonprofits lead effortsFormal day labor centers supported by local governments only began cropping up in the last 20 years, starting in California, said Abel Valenzuela, who researches day labor at UCLA and spoke at UNC in March.“Most communities ignore day laborers, at least in terms of doing something about it,” he said.Valenzuela said he counted 1,100 sites where day laborers gather in the United States. Only 65 of them are formal worker centers. Most are run by nonprofits.In Graton, Calif., community members came together to organize a similar day labor “catch-all” corner into a non-profit workers’ center.“It was a long, arduous process. A year long of consensus building,” said Christina Zapata, project coordinator of the Graton Day Labor Center.The center, which is run mostly by volunteers on a budget of $245,000, was founded in collaboration with the town government.Carrboro officials are also counting on a nonprofit to provide a day labor center, and the loss of El Centro Latino has prolonged that process.“We’re back to square one,” said Alderman Randee Haven-O’Donnell.Aldermen are looking to El Centro Hispano to fill revitalize the debate for a potential center.El Centro Hispano has been trying to move into a space in Carrboro Plaza on N.C. 54 West, a convenient location for a day labor center, as employers need to get on the highway quickly, Haven-O’Donnell said.And while not currently targeting day laborers specifically, depending on Orange County’s needs, El Centro Hispano’s resources office could be expanded to assist them, said Executive Director Pilar Rocha-Goldberg.“Of course (day labor) is something we need to look at,” Rocha-Goldberg said. “And after we learn more about it, we can take away … how is the best way to approach it.”Legal questions ariseBefore El Centro Latino closed, its staff was involved in finding solutions to the issues at the corner.A lack of shelter, bathrooms and water fountains, and a lack of regulation contributing to wage theft have been pegged as human rights issues by Gallegos and Haven-O’Donnell.Emilio Arceo, a day laborer who waits for work on the corner to support his wife and child in Mexico, has experienced what policymakers call wage theft.Wage theft occurs when an employer hires day laborers and drops them off at the end of the day with a promise to pay them later, but never does.“Mostly, they pay us. But lots of people, they’ll say, ‘Tomorrow I’ll pay you. Oh, I’ll pay you the next day,’ but sometimes, they just don’t come back,” Arceo said in Spanish.The Board of Aldermen assigned town attorney Mike Brough to research the legalities behind wage theft and whether Carrboro has the authority to implement any kind of policy to criminalize it.“I think we probably do have the authority to engage or adopt such an ordinance,” he said, adding that jurisdiction is hard to determine.“If someone picks somebody up in Carrboro, goes out and they do work in Orange County, and they don’t pay them for it, where does that offense occur?” Brough said, citing one of the legal gray areas.Alderman Sammy Slade said he understood wage theft involving workers picked up in Carrboro as being under town jurisdiction.“It’s really difficult to keep track or help or even provide information to day laborers on what they can do when the people who hire them don’t pay them,” he said. “It’s another reason for why it makes sense to make a formalized day labor center.”In need of a leaderIlana Dubester, the last interim director at El Centro Latino before it closed, said that whatever advocacy group replaces El Centro needs to consider that population’s needs.“That community needs to be integrally involved and brought in and helping developing decisions for whatever the day laborer center is,” Dubester said.But the Latino community has lacked someone to organize it.“We don’t have a leader,” Morales said. “We need a leader who has standing in civic matters.”Slade said that the community’s lack of a voice might be part of why day labor issues haven’t been on the Aldermen’s agenda lately.“It goes to show why it’s important to have an advocacy group for Latinos in the community,” he said. “But hopefully when (El Centro Hispano) moves in that can be taken up as an issue.”Unlike in Graton, where one of the obstacles to establishing a center was a group who was expressly against it, Slade said that no opposition group is pushing the issue off the table.“Carrboro has historically been very supportive of the Latino community and immigrants,” he said.“But it’s something that as elected representatives we should be sensitive to anyway.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
Everyone dealing with the uncertainty of day labor has a reason for his or her work.A carpenter needs to pay his family’s medical bills. A local dishwasher works below minimum wage to stay with his U.S.-born children. A cleaning lady pays for her son’s medical school tuition.The national debate still rages over how the country should deal with Latino immigrants. But whether you are in favor of immigration or not, it’s impossible to ignore its impact.
Three Hillsborough residents were charged with first-degree murder Tuesday after throwing a man from a moving vehicle Monday afternoon, according to Orange County Sheriff reports.Nineteen-year-old Paylor James Daniels died Monday from injuries sustained after being thrown from the vehicle, deputies determined from interviews with witnesses. The vehicle then fled from the scene, a news release states.At approximately 2:45 p.m. Monday, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report that a pedestrian had been hit by a motor vehicle on Saw Mill Road in northern Orange County.Daniels was transported by Life Flight to Duke Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.Hillsborough residents Demarus Carver, 19, and Jemeison Torain, 21, turned themselves in late Monday night. Rodney Fearrington, 19, was taken into custody Tuesday morning at 11:15 a.m.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
David Sevedra takes his two little girls to the dentist once a year to get their teeth cleaned.While Sevedra, who works in construction, can’t afford to maintain his own teeth at the Orange County dental clinic, he said he’s happy to keep his daughters’ teeth healthy and avoid expensive trips to the emergency room.Orange County Dental Health Services, which provides care on a sliding cost scale in Carrboro and Hillsborough, is looking at closing the Carrboro branch where Sevedra’s daughters have been going for the last four years.The Orange County Board of Commissioners has been asking the health department to cut back on costs and will discuss closing the Carrboro dental clinic for the second time in a year at today’s Board of Health meeting.Orange County Health Director Rosemary Summers said she’s concerned that may be the only way to tighten the budget.“We don’t have anywhere else to cut our budget without cutting services,” Summers said.The Hillsborough dental clinic, which operates out of the county health department building, is open for half of the week while the Carrboro clinic is open the other half, operating out of an expensive rental space in Carr Mill Mall.While the county already owns the building in Hillsborough, it spends around $62,000 a year on rent for the Carrboro branch.“We have a lease that runs through sometime in 2011, so it’s not going to happen imminently anyway,” Commissioner Barry Jacobs said.“But the issue is that we can’t afford to keep both dental clinics open full time. So one is open part time, and the other is open even less time. The idea would be to have one place where we would have a more robust service,” Jacobs said.It’s already difficult to get an appointment in Carrboro because the clinic can only afford to stay open for two days each week, Summers said.Sevedra said he has waited in line for an hour before and failed to get an appointment.“It’s really hard to evaluate if we were there full time, would that be a busier clinic than the Hillsborough clinic?” Summers said.“The Hillsborough clinic has traditionally been a very busy clinic because there are fewer dentists in the northern part of the county that serve the uninsured and Medicaid.”The health department will present the statistics of both clinics at the Board of Health meeting and will recommend to the commissioners whether closing the Carrboro branch makes sense.Although the recession has forced the county to subsidize more and more patients’ dental care — cost is determined by an individual patient’s income — Jacobs said that closing the Carrboro branch is not meant to cut services.Cutting back on rental fees would rather leave more funds available to help the county afford subsidized patient care, as long as the patients go to Hillsborough for it.The county might consider providing transportation directly to the Hillsborough clinic, Jacobs said.“We don’t want to leave people out just because we can’t afford two part-time facilities that don’t satisfy anyone,” Jacobs said.The Student Health Action Coalition provides free dental services by UNC School of Dentistry students out of the Carr Mill Mall clinic several times a month. If the clinic closed, they would have to move.“We provide that space for them to a very nominal fee every year, so that is one of the other things we’re evaluating,” Summers said.Jacobs said he hopes that dental students can fill the vacuum that might be left if the Carrboro clinic closes.“We would certainly be interested in working with the dental school to extend its service,” Jacobs said.“There’s going to be a gap. If they could help us fill it, it’s going to be great.”As for Sevedra, his daughters will get at least one more teeth cleaning in Carrboro if commissioners close it when the lease runs out.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
Chapped hands in the frost of the early morning. Boots stained with old, flaking paint. Faded sweatshirts layered atop too-thin a T-shirt.Barely warm and rarely hopeful, they await the disappearing promise of an honest day’s work.On any given day, dozens of men await construction and landscaping work on the corner of Jones Ferry Road and Davie Road in Carrboro.But there is barely any work to be had in the first place anymore. Meanwhile, town officials continue discussing the possibility of establishing an official day laborers center and passing an ordinance penalizing employers who withhold pay.For the day laborers, visits to food banks are becoming more frequent, and some men have been returning home after giving up on the possibility of a better-paying job that can support them and their families.“With the economy the way it is, people aren’t getting construction jobs. There used to be 150 men waiting for work. Right now it’s less than 40,” day laborer Emilio Arceo said in Spanish.“Some of them have gone back home, some go to the shelter to eat or to the churches that help us. There’s almost no work.”Day in and day out, Arceo awaits the possibility that someone might hire him for the day. During five hours, about five or six employers might stop by to pick up one or two workers. The town of Carrboro allows day laborers to gather on the corner between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m.Arceo has been working out of Carrboro for two years. When there’s work, he can get $10 an hour in the United States — a promise that keeps him here to support his family in Mexico: a 7-year-old daughter and a wife he hasn’t seen in the better part of four years.“It’s sad, but you have to work,” he said.No work to hire forAs construction companies and day laborers alike await better economic times and warmer, drier weather, the migrant worker on the corner is hit hardest by racial discrimination and the fear of hiring an undocumented worker.While Carrboro and Orange County don’t participate in the 287(g) program, which gives local sheriffs the authority to put criminal suspects into deportation proceedings, the stigma remains behind hiring day labors without documentation.“If you are on the street, it’s because you probably don’t have the means to get a job somewhere else,” said Rafael Gallegos, the assistant director of the Chapel Hill & Carrboro Human Rights Center, a social services and advocacy group that works with the day laborers.Gallegos estimated that about three-quarters of the day laborers are undocumented, but said a loophole in immigration law might allow them to work as independent contractors regardless of status.John Brisbe is a foreman for Kountry Boys House Moving & Recycling, based in Pittsboro.Bernardo Morales, a day laborer from Mexico who has worked with Kountry Boys in the past, has Brisbe’s cell phone number saved in his phone.Morales refers to Brisbe as “mi patron”: Spanish for “employer” or “boss.” Like many, Morales depends on such contacts to get work when he’s not picked up at the corner.But Brisbe isn’t braving the economic climate much better, and he said he can’t even remember the last time that he went to hire anyone for his boss from the corner because the company hasn’t had enough work.“Right now we’ve only got two of us actually staying busy,” Brisbe said, though he’s hopeful that work will pick up soon.“Normally, a couple years ago, I was putting 40, 45, 50 hours a week in easy, and now I’m lucky to get 30 to 35 hours a week,” he said.Brisbe works for $11.50 an hour and is the sole breadwinner for his wife and four children. Times haven’t been easy for him either.“A few years ago, it was different. We had a couple guys that we actually picked up … and actually worked for us for quite a while,” he said.Rich Swain owns Kountry Boys. He said his company hired day laborers from that corner for the last five or six years, but stopped the practice for many reasons.“They want too much money, they don’t want to pay taxes, they don’t have Social Security cards, and it’s too dangerous to mess with them. They try to get more than a white boy who wants to work for a pay check any day,” he said.‘No hay ni trabajo, ni nada’Men like Morales demand $10 an hour because when work isn’t available daily, they can’t get by on any less.Morales shares an apartment in Abbey Court with two other day laborers. They help each other make ends meet. In one week last month, Morales only got one day of work.“We feel like a family here. We lend each other a hand when there’s a crisis with work,” Efren Cisneros, Morales’ roommate, said in Spanish.Cisneros’ wife died in Mexico last November, and he had to take off work for more than three weeks while his roommates picked up the loose ends.“With $300 a week, some of them are able to pay their rent, eat, clothe and send money home. How do you do that?” Gallegos said. “And they do it.”Ricardo Lázaro has been in Carrboro for 14 years and has observed the changing climate at the corner.Selling Mexican food from his own kitchen, he has seen many of the laborers come and go.“The men out there on the corner right now are the ones who have the real faith,” Lázaro said in Spanish, referring to their resilience and persistence.“A lot of them have left,” said Gallegos, who said some men have told him that they’re leaving because the pay and the standard of living just aren’t worth it anymore.“One of the things they would tell you is that, ‘I could come here and starve by myself, or I could go home and starve with my family.’”A promise unrealizedWhen Cisneros came to Carrboro four years ago, he came on the notion a friend had given him that he could make $1,000 a week.“When I came here they told me I could get a check each week,” Cisneros said.“Yeah, you can earn $1,000, if you’ve been here 25 years and you have the contacts, an employer,” he said.And things have been worse lately.The $100 a day he could depend on for a good day’s work is now gone. Too many people, both immigrants and U.S. citizens, are looking for work on contingency, and that has driven down wages.“It’s a whim,” Morales said in Spanish to describe why friends and neighbors listen to each other about where the best work is.“A lot of times we come for a different life. I came because a friend told me to come here. He was really excited about it,” he said.Ricardo explained that part of the reason so many men came to the states to seek migrant and day-to-day work was because of the networks they form among each other.“It’s a network. I help this person, this person helps someone else, who helps someone else, who helps a whole family, and that’s how the community gets so big,” Ricardo said.But those who have a few contacts stay, and those who have hopes for the coming months will keep going out to the corner every morning.All Necleto Lopez has is his faith and his health.Older and with a care-worn face reflecting years of hard labor, Lopez waits for a truck, any truck, in his Carolina blue sweatshirt.“If God has given you good health, you just keep fighting ahead."Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
The Carrboro Latino community met its new advocate Tuesday — a Durham organization that came to fill the void left by El Centro Latino.Set to open in Carrboro on April 1, the Durham-based El Centro Hispano will replace Carrboro’s Latino-focused resource center that closed last year.At least 100 community members attended, anxious to get acquainted with the new resource center that plans to open simultaneously in Carrboro Plaza on N.C. 54 with a branch of the Latino Community Credit Union.“The hope and mission of this organization thrives,” read El Centro Latino board member Elanie Cintron from a statement prepared by the board. “Even though the funding may have dwindled, the need for a center has not diminished.”El Centro Hispano had about $1.5 million in revenue in 2008, while El Centro Latino brought in about $210,000, according to tax forms.It also has a wider array of services that it will bring to Carrboro.While El Centro Latino was well-known for its career help and after-school tutoring, El Centro Hispano has health programs, legal and tax services, more extensive education and a focus on advocacy.Susan Denman, chairwoman of the Durham center’s board, said that while the center has enough money in reserve to open, it will not thrive in Carrboro without support from the community.“We are out on a limb, and it’s because we support what Carrboro and Chapel Hill have been doing, and we have faith in the foundation the board has laid,” Denman said, adding that she hopes El Centro Latino board members will join El Centro Hispano’s board.Loida Ginocchio-Silva, who worked for El Centro Latino, said she hopes to volunteer with the new center.“They have a long history of larger outreach to the Latino community and bigger involvement,” she said. “I have really high hopes of them and their programs.”
With a stack of Valentine cards ready for addressing, nurse Fran Whitfield passed the time in Lenoir Hall last week on the off chance that someone might stop by for an H1N1 vaccine.
Before Carrboro’s main resource center for Latinos closed its doors in December, the Triangle community was already discussing ways to save it.In a town hall meeting tonight, Carrboro officials, former El Centro Latino staff and leaders of a Durham-based Latino nonprofit will meet with community members to discuss exactly how El Centro will be reborn.Focused on providing social services, El Centro Latino was lauded for its career advice and classes for immigrants. However, a series of eight directors in 10 years and a serious budget shortfall forced it to close its doors.El Centro Hispano, a Durham-based Latino advocacy nonprofit that offers a wider array of services and opportunities for activism, is set to open a branch in Carrboro in conjunction with El Centro Latino and a new Latino Community Credit Union to maintain resources for Orange County’s Latino population.“We’re doing this because leaders in the Latino community have asked us and are supporting us,” said Susan Denman, chairwoman of El Centro Hispano’s board of directors. “But we really need the whole community to want this, and we want to be responsive to the needs as much as possible.”Ilana Dubester, the last interim director at El Centro Latino who came in once it was already losing money, said El Centro Hispano’s support isn’t exactly a bailout.“I don’t imagine that El Centro Hispano has a gazillion extra resources to put into Orange County, so the process might be slow — one of building of support,” Dubester said.The support might come in the form of several funding ideas that helped keep El Centro Hispano afloat while its neighbor lagged behind: an advocacy focus, varied programs to attract grants and an optional membership fee.The tactics are necessary because of an array of problems that have plagued Latino nonprofit organizations across the country.Dubester said it’s not easy to operate a Latino nonprofit in the Southeast.Organizations must battle stigmas about undocumented immigrants, support a bilingual staff and fund a building that’s within reach of the Latino community.“The issue of the ‘illegal alien’ led to a decline in support,” Dubester said.And with a local focus, the nonprofit draws on a smaller pool of resources.Durham and Orange counties are some of the more receptive N.C. counties to Latino advocacy, Dubester said. That support comes in the form of public opinion as well as financial contributions.The center in Durham, where there are about 32,000 Latinos, had an end-of-year fund balance of nearly $1.5 million in 2008, while El Centro Latino’s balance hovered around $100,000, according to tax records. The Carrboro center served a population about one-fourth the size of the Durham center.While El Centro Hispano received slightly more county funding than El Centro Latino — $35,000 compared to $21,000 — the Carrboro nonprofit was more dependent on the funds.“Durham County is larger. They have a larger budget. But when a budget breaks down, they have more to fund,” said Torin Martinez, chairman of El Centro Latino’s board.It’s easier for El Centro Hispano to get funding for specific programs than for the entire organization, said director Pilar Rocha-Goldberg. El Centro Latino had fewer programs.The Durham nonprofit also has membership fees, a practice Rocha-Goldberg is considering bringing to Carrboro.“We support each other,” she said of the relationship between Durham and the nonprofit.Denman said the community is more likely to fund El Centro Hispano because it focuses on advocacy, while El Centro Latino focused more on social services.“We really benefit from being out there in the community … to identify issues and problems that we can then bring back to resolve,” Denman said.Martinez said that if Carrboro expresses a desire for more advocacy at tonight’s meeting, then it will become a focus of the new branch.El Centro Hispano’s influence could extend to a new name, which will be discussed tonight.While El Centro Latino has had less direct public support financially, Martinez said public opinion has nothing to do with why El Centro Latino had to close.“Our organization very much had a trusting relationship with the community,” he said. “That’s evidenced in the outcry when we shut down, in the people who wanted it back and wanted it alive again.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
Disc jockeying on the bottom floor of East End Oyster and Martini Bar didn’t have the best effect on Myles Bacon’s lungs.Bacon, who coaches the Carolina Team Handball Club and works at East End part time, said the second-hand smoke inherent to the bar scene was hurting his athletics.“You walk out at night and you just don’t feel great,” he said.Although the statewide smoking ban has helped people like Bacon, whom the law intended to protect from secondhand smoke in bars and restaurants, business owners have faced the first weeks of the ban confused about its efficacy.From Jan. 2 to the first week of February, 24 complaints were filed against a handful of Chapel Hill businesses, including East End, and business managers aren’t sure how to prevent more in the future.Violations are registered based on anonymous complaints to the state’s health department. The county’s environmental health staff then gives a series of citations ending in $200 fines and possible court injunction.Tom Konsler, Orange County’s environmental health director, spent the last month visiting businesses to follow up on first-time complaints by distributing educational material — the state-mandated response to a complaint. “Most were pretty surprised that they were the target of a complaint,” said Konsler, who visited East End in January. “They felt that they were knowledgeable of the law requirements, and … really couldn’t give accounts of when these violations would have occurred.”Bacon remembers taking Konsler’s visit as a learning opportunity, but still doesn’t understand the complaint’s origin. Before the ban, the bar prepared with “no smoking signs” and outdoor seating and a patio heater for smokers, a trend he’s seeing at other businesses.Bacon said he was working during the infraction, but said the bar was so empty, he would have noticed if someone was smoking. Now he’s not convinced the anonymous complaint system has merit.“If you’re willing to file a complaint, you have to be willing to talk on that,” he said. He worries the system could allow for angry customers to file false allegations out of spite.Other downtown bars also were cited despite posting non-smoking signs and taking away ashtrays.Down the street from East End, Players has received two complaints. Nick Stroud, Players co-owner, said he’s not sure his second-floor space which often reaches 300-person capacity can enforce the ban safely.Stroud referenced the single customer exit — a staircase to Franklin Street that’s often crowded with customers waiting to be stamped in.“We’re very anti-smoking,” said Drew Smith, Stroud’s business partner. “When there are 300 people inside, 100 leaving and 100 coming in, and someone’s smoking a cigarette, it’s a lot harder to control.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
When her husband was severely burned in a gas station explosion during Haiti’s earthquake, Yvita Louis could only apply cold water and Vaseline to his charred skin.For seven days, she cared for him in their damaged home in a suburb outside of downtown Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, until help arrived. He was ultimately transferred to UNC Hospitals on Tuesday, along with two other Haitian patients.Wednesday morning, more than two weeks after the magnitude-7.0 earthquake, Eric Louis went through surgery at the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center as his wife recounted their story in a press conference with her husband’s doctors.Eric Louis, 48, was first treated for the third-degree burns on his hands that left the tendons in his fingers exposed, said Bruce Cairns, the burn center’s director.Louis also has second- and third-degree burns on his face, scalp, back and parts of his arms and legs.“She didn’t know if her husband was going to make it or not,” said Lionel Giordani, a local Haitian who translated Louis’ lilting Haitian Creole.Louis found her husband in a Port-au-Prince hospital that lacked doctors and supplies, and she decided to carry him the 10 miles home to take care of him herself.“I don’t think we can comprehend how difficult and challenging the situation really has been for them,” Cairns said.Eric Louis will stay at the hospital for at least six weeks for a series of surgeries and therapy, all of which will be covered by the N.C. Refugee Assistance Program that pays for costs through the Medicaid.Louis’s treatment will involve skin regrowth, infection prevention and physical therapy.“We were worried about the potential for infection from the dead tissue on his hands that is two weeks old,” Cairns said. “We are still.”Wednesday’s procedure covered the wounds with human skin and modified pig skin to keep the tissue moist and reduce pain.And doctors said they are hopeful for a full recovery, as is Yvita Louis.“She hopes her husband can find the best care at UNC, that her husband can have good health,” Giordani said for Louis.After the treatment, Louis said she would like to stay in the U.S. and bring her three children and granddaughter, too. She is staying at the hospital with her husband.“She doesn’t have any home right now in Haiti,” Giordani said.Although the Obama administration granted special refugee status for 18 months to Haitians living illegally in the U.S., accommodating families like the Louises won’t be easy.Cairns said various charities have already offered their support.“Imagine, this is just one person,” Cairns said. “Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people have similar stories.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
After closing its doors in late November, the Carrboro-based nonprofit El Centro Latino is working to reopen.El Centro Latino’s board will discuss tonight how to collaborate with other local Latino-serving nonprofits to provide the community with resources it needs, supported by some Carrboro town officials.After more than 10 years of providing the Carrboro-based Latino community with ESL and computer classes, career advice and immigration support, among other services, El Centro was forced to close due to difficult leadership transitions and a shortfall in grants and donations.The agency’s future could lie in El Centro Hispano, a Durham nonprofit with a similar mission.If the agencies pooled resources, said Torin Martinez, chairman of El Centro’s board, it could help both groups stay afloat and serve their respective communities during what he called financially difficult years for nonprofits.“Many Latino nonprofits have gone through a roller coaster of a time since the last few years and changes of leadership,” he said.El Centro Latino’s board is hoping to open a single site in the Carrboro Plaza that would house services from El Centro Latino, El Centro Hispano and the Durham-based N.C. Latino Community Credit Union.This way, Martinez said, needs could be met in one place.“There is a draw in our community to collaborate to work regionally,” he said. “There is more funding; there’s less overlap of resources.”The center in Durham also has a much larger budget than El Centro Latino, although it does serve a much larger community.According to 2008 tax returns, Durham’s El Centro Hispano reported about $1.6 million in fiscal year 2008 revenues, while Carrboro’s El Centro Latino reported $211,838.According to 2008 U.S. Census estimates, Durham has a Latino population of about 32,300, about four times that of Orange County’s in that year. Pooling those resources could help to keep both agencies open.Whatever the final plan might be, Carrboro town officials are hoping to coordinate with El Centro Latino’s board prior to a town meeting tentatively scheduled for Feb. 18.Carrboro Community and Economic Development Director James Harris said he hopes the final decision will be fiscally responsible.He said the town gives $4,000 to $6,000 to each of about 36 nonprofits yearly, with El Centro Latino receiving about $4,000.The Inter-Faith Council for Social Service receives the largest amount at $8,000 a year.Harris said he would like to see the Latino community to participate more in relaunching the center in the coming months.“If we could coalesce those folks to work together, it would be better, because we don’t have a lot of money,” he said.Alderman Sammy Slade said he hopes town officials stay involved.“The process is just now beginning,” Slade said. Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
Tania Herrera vive al día.