CMYK ‘Cruizin’ for a Cure’ breast cancer benefit
Webb wins over N.Vance in 5 sets
Autumn in the Tri-County Area
Local & State, Page 7A
Sports, Page 1B
Special Sectiion Inside Today FRIDAY, September 25, 2009
Volume XCV, No. 225
(252) 436-2700
www.hendersondispatch.com
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Feds: N.C. terror suspects targeted U.S. military By MIKE BAKER Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH — Two North Carolina terrorism suspects plotted to kill U.S. military personnel and one of them obtained maps of a Marine Corps base in Virginia to plan an attack, prosecutors said Thursday. A superseding indictment returned against Daniel Patrick Boyd and Hysen Sherifi is the first time authorities have said the homegrown terrorism ring had specific targets. Prosecutors said Boyd “undertook reconnais-
sance” of the base located about 30 miles south of Washington. “These additional charges hammer home the grim reality that today’s homegrown terrorists are not limiting their violent plans to locations overseas, but instead are willing to set their sights on American citizens and American targets, right here at home,” U.S. Attorney George Holding said in a statement. Authorities have previously said the men went on training expeditions in the weeks leading up to their arrest in July, practicing military tactics with armor-
piercing bullets on a property in rural North Carolina. Seven men are awaiting trial in the case, and investigators say an eighth suspect is believed to be in Pakistan. An initial indictment had accused the men of plotting international terrorism and conspiring to support terrorism, and investigators have said some of the men took trips to Jordan, Kosovo, Pakistan and Israel “to engage in violent jihad.” There was never any sign that the suspects had considered any targets in the United States. The new indictment adds
charges for conspiring to kill military personnel. It also adds weapons charges for Boyd, Sherifi and Zakariya Boyd. Prosecutors say Daniel Boyd, a drywall contractor and the father of suspects Zakariya and Dylan Boyd, was the ringleader of the aspiring terrorist group. In lengthy speeches at his home south of Raleigh, he decried the U.S. military, discussed the honor of martyrdom and bemoaned the struggle of Muslims, according to audio tapes played during a detention hearing in August. The FBI has said agents
seized some two dozen guns and more than 27,000 rounds of ammunition from Boyd’s home. The superseding indictment says Boyd possessed the armorpiercing ammunition “to attack the Americans,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Raleigh. Prosecutors did not immediately release the complete indictment and did not explain Sherifi’s role in planning to kill military personnel. Attorneys for Daniel and Zakariya Boyd and Sherifi did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Farmers’ Not letting a little deportation stop him Vance market water fever district By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
You could see farmers’ market fever spread quickly Thursday among the Planning and Environmental Committee’s three county commissioners. It didn’t take long for Danny Wright and Chairman Dan Brummitt to begin sharing Terry Garrison’s vision of Vance having a scaled-down version of the open air market enjoyed by residents of Charleston in South Carolina. Garrison had nothing but praise for the event which includes the sales of produce, crafts and other items found in the world of agriculture. Pete Burgess of the Vance County Farm Bureau estimated that a suitable building for a local farmers’ market would cost $400,000. The commissioners agreed to recommend that their board appoint a committee to help get grants for the project and to find a location for the market. Contact the writer at awheless@hendersondispatch.com.
Index Our Hometown . . . . . 2A Business & Farm. . . . 5A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 8A Light Side . . . . . . . . 11A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-5B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . 6B Classifieds. . . . . . . 7-9B
Weather Today Showers High: 80 Low: 55
Saturday Cooler
High: 69 Low: 63
Panel draws schedule for early '10 start By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
AP Photo/Guillermo Arias
Mexican Antonio Ocampo, 30, a recently deported migrant from Seattle, waits Thursday for a chance to cross to U.S. near the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Tijuana. U.S. authorities shut down the nation’s busiest border crossing on Tuesday after federal agents fired shots at three vans filled with illegal immigrants whose drivers tried to storm past inspectors, officials said.
N.C., others call for jobless benefits extension By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press Writer
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Labor commissioners from 18 states — including North Carolina — urged the U.S. Senate on Thursday to act immediately to extend unemployment benefits for 300,000 people who will exhaust theirs in another week. “We’re here because we are facing an unemployment crisis of epic proportions,” said New York Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith, surrounded by counterparts from around the country. “Families are suffering. Unless further action is taken, more suffering is on the horizon.” The group urged the Senate to follow the House’s lead and agree to give the jobless in states with unem-
Deaths Dunn Mary M. Taylor, 81 Stem Melvin M. Boyd, 55 Warrenton Willie M. Turner, 85
Obituaries, 4A
Workforce Agencies, whose leadership passed a resolution seeking even broader extensions of benefits as a way to keep the unemployed from ending up on welfare. “The cost then will shift from the federal government to the state and local governments, and we know how difficult times are,” Smith said. The resolution asks Congress to eventually expand the 13-week extension to all states and provide a 20-week extension for high unemployment states. It also would preserve through 2010 the $25 that was added to people’s weekly unemployment checks by the stimulus act passed last February. Said Keith Kelly, commissioner of the Montana Department of Labor Please see JOBLESS, page 3A
Please see WATER, page 3A
N.C. data: Swine flu already rivaling seasonal flu By MIKE BAKER Associated Press Writer
Details, 3A
ployment rates topping 8.5 percent an additional 13 weeks of benefits. The immediate effect would be to keep help flowing to 300,000 of the 400,000 people whose benefits would stop this month. Through the end of the year, it would protect more than 1 million people. “These are not faceless people,” said Stephen Geskey, director of the Unemployment Insurance Agency in Michigan, where unemployment is 15.2 percent, the highest in the nation. “They are our mothers, our fathers, our brothers, our sisters, our sons and daughters. My staff ... are already receiving calls from desperate people wondering, ‘What are we going to do next?’” The labor officials were in Niagara Falls for the annual meeting of the National Association of State
Construction of Vance County’s proposed water district would begin Feb. 1 of 2010 under a progress schedule that the Planning and Environmental Committee will recommend Oct. 5 to the Board of Commissioners. Other steps would include: • Appoint from Oct. 5-19 a citizens’ advisory committee to obtain sign-ups on a local level. It would report to County Manager Jerry Ayscue. • Send out water bills on Oct. 1 to Phase 1A service area residents at the beginning of mass mailings of sign-up forms that will stop on Oct. 15. If approved, the contracts would specify estimated monthly rates of $35 to $45 for 5,000 gallons of water. • Start conducting sign-up drives on Oct. 15 in public meetings at locations in Phase 1A and door-to-door. Participation is not mandatory. • Door-to-door surveys for sign-ups will be done by members of the Citizen Advisory Committee and possibly part-time hired staff. They will take place from Oct. 15 to Nov. 30.
RALEIGH — North Carolina is already seeing one of the most active flu seasons in recent record keeping, an early indication of how widespread the swine flu pandemic could become. Dr. Zack Moore, a respiratory disease epidemiologist for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, said officials were prepared for a spike in flu cases but were surprised at how quickly the numbers climbed. The number of reported flulike patients has spiked since the beginning of the school year, officials said. “You don’t like to see a curve go-
ing up that steeply,” Moore said. For three consecutive weeks, health providers have been reporting that more than 5 percent of patients have influenza-like symptoms. Those figures rival the peak of other flu seasons during this decade. During the week ending Sept. 12, nearly 7 percent of people who sought care at facilities in the health reporting network had flulike illnesses, defined as a fever of at least 100 degrees along with a cough or sore throat. That was up from less than 2 percent just two weeks prior. Of available figures dating back to 2001, only one other week recorded a higher percentage of sick patients — a
week in December 2003 at the height of that winter’s exhausting flu seasons. North Carolina is asking clinicians to submit samples of flu cases only when the patient requires intensive care, a push that allows the state lab to focus on the critical issues. The state had previously gathered samples for all people that were hospitalized. Most of the flu cases confirmed in lab tests have been the swine flu, according to the state. The flu problem appears to be radiating out of the South with the start of the school year. Now, nearly half of states have “widespread” flu activity, according to the CDC.
Moore said the flu is difficult to predict, and health officials aren’t sure whether flu reporting levels are going to stay elevated or whether the data shows a temporary peak. The seasonal flu typically peaks during the middle of winter. “It’s not unexpected,” Moore said. “We are in a pandemic.” Health officials are preparing to distribute a swine flu vaccine in the coming months, first targeting health workers and high-risk groups such as young children and pregnant women. Health fficials have also said that many people will do well without the vaccine, noting that most people infected have mild illness and recover by themselves.