THE NEW 4-H: Youth club changes with the times. SUNDAY BEHIND BARS: Authorities arrest man on child porn charges. 2A
WHO’S NEWS
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Brittany Overman, a senior at High Point University, spent her summer interning with the Department of Human Performance at Richard Childress Racing in Welcome. Her role included assisting in creating and providing injury prevention programs, injury management and rehabilitative protocols to pit crew members.
Inside...
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Stocks make small gain despite jobless figures. 7C BY PAUL B. JOHNSON ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE
Customers (front to back) Brandon Painter, Christine Painter, Glenn Danzig and Traci Lawson can been seen looking for jobs through the window of the computer room at the ESC office in High Point. ing many jobless people locally is reflected across the state and nation as unemployment remains at high levels. Battered by the recession, people chronically out of work are exhausting even the longest-available set of unemployment benefits. The National Employment Law Project esti-
mates that 15,000 North Carolinians will exhaust unemployment benefits by the end of this month. By the end of the year, the statewide total swells to 32,000 North Carolinians. “Those people are those who lost their jobs last fall when the state economy
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Anyone who needs help either looking for work or applying for unemployment benefits can contact one of the N.C. Employment Security Commission offices in the area. The offices include: • High Point ESC, 919 Phillips Ave., 882-4141. • Asheboro ESC, 355 S. Fayetteville St., 625-5128. • Lexington ESC, 103 W. Center St. Ext., 248-2326.
JOBLESS , 2A
Inside...
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List of projects. 2A BY PAUL B. JOHNSON ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE
Photo shows Finch Farm Road looking south past the intersection at Welborn Road. the MPO members had to pare down the number of recommended road projects to the N.C. Board of Transportation because of a reform effort by Gov. Beverly Perdue during her first year in office. Perdue’s administration is changing the way the N.C. Department of Transportation prioritizes and begins
work on items in the state Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), the long-range blueprint for road projects statewide. Smothers and her cohorts had to come up with 25 area road projects as priorities in the reformed TIP, while leaving out eight projects. The list of recommended local projects will be taken
up by the state Board of Transportation. Smothers said she hopes the reforms to transportation planning will lead to a more realistic and doable schedule of road projects. In the past, twice as many projects have been listed in the TIP as money available for work. “We hope that, within
our division, there will be the dollars allocated to get these projects moving,” Smothers said. Even though it was painful for local officials to eliminate eight projects, Smothers said she hopes in the long run the region will benefit by accelerating work on the remaining priorities. “The way it had been going, it just takes so long to get anything completed,” she said. DOT staff on Wednesday presented an interim work program to the state Board of Transportation, said Greer Beaty, director of communications for the DOT in Raleigh. “We looked at what projects we can realistically accomplish in the next five years,” she said. The new TIP will be completed by May, Beaty said. pjohnson@hpe.com | 888-3528
Most students will have chance to see Obama’s speech BY DAVID NIVENS ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
TRIAD – Most area students will have an opportunity to hear President Obama’s live national speech Tuesday. The White House said the nationally televised speech, which has become the focus of political controversy on talk radio shows and other venues, will encourage students to do well and to work hard. Several Triad school district leaders said Friday teachers and principals will decide whether students should watch the president. Parents can request that their children not participate.
BROADCAST
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When: Noon, Tuesday from Wakefield High in Arlington, Va., via live transmission on television and the Internet. Topic: The U.S. Department of Education said the speech will be about working hard in school, setting educational goals and taking responsibility for learning. “We’re also aware that some parents and staff members may have a different view,” said Guilford County Schools spokeswoman Haley Miller. “Parents may opt out by notifying their child’s school. Schools will provide alternative learning activities so valuable instructional time won’t be lost.” Although former Repub-
lican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush delivered similar speeches, some opponents have argued the president’s message oversteps his authority. “I don’t mind the president speaking to students,” said Guilford County Board of Education member Garth Hebert of High Point. “But I have serious
INSIDE
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JOB SERVICE OFFICES
Officials revise Triad road priorities
TRIAD – High Point Mayor Becky Smothers hopes when it comes to longrange state transportation project planning, slimmer is better. Smothers serves as chairwoman of the High Point Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is made up of elected officials from the counties bordering High Point. The members of the group discuss and help guide transportation planning for the greater High Point area and make recommendations on regional road projects to state officials. Earlier this summer,
125th year No. 248
50 Cents Daily $1 Sundays
OUT OF WORK
HIGH POINT – Local work force counselor Charles Diggs handled yet another sobering phone call Friday morning from a worried job-seeker asking about unemployment benefits. In what’s become an alltoo-frequent refrain, Diggs talked with the man troubled about exhausting his unemployment benefits before he can find a new job. If he exhausts his jobless benefits, the man told Diggs, he’d lose his main source of income now. “We have a large number of people who are starting to run low or run out of unemployment benefits,” said Diggs, assistant manager of the High Point office of the N.C. Employment Security Commission. The dilemma confront-
September 5, 2009
www.hpe.com High Point, N.C.
OPENING ACTS: Wake, UNC, Duke and ECU set for kickoffs. 3C
Advocates: Chronic unemployed need benefits extended
SATURDAY
reservations about a note from the secretary of education about how students should be prepared to receive the message. That smacks of indoctrination. I’d prefer more substance. I think the speech will be emotional rhetoric.” Overall, teachers and principals will try to fit the speech into their normal courses, according to the district leaders. “If classroom teachers desire to use the address as material that supports the curriculum objective, they may do so,” said Meredith Palmer, spokeswoman for Davidson County Schools. James Carmichael, associate superintendent for Thomasville City Schools,
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said teachers will decide whether students watch the speech in the classroom. The staff at each Randolph County school will decide, said Superintendent Donald Andrews. “We told principals they would have to give the parents the option of opting out if they so desire because it appears to be somewhat controversial,” Andrews said. “We are not doing what Guilford County and Forsyth County did in that everybody is watching it all. I didn’t think that was appropriate at all.” Staff Writer Darrick Ignasiak contributed to this report. dnivens@hpe.com | 888-3626
PASSPORT TO BUSINESS: HPU program lets merchants benefit from students. 1B OBITUARIES
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Nit Burkhart, 79 Ilease Campbell, 91 Helen Carter, 80 Stephen Cash, 40 Mercedes Erwin, 93 Hoyle Fulbright, 75 Buster Goodman, 76 Judy Kennedy , 68 Danny Murphy Cloe Oakley, 97 Latasha Pegues, 23 Bill Roach, 78 Joe Robertson, 87 Barbara Stanley, 69 Obituaries, 2B
WEATHER
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Mostly sunny High 86, Low 61
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INDEX ABBY 3B BUSINESS 6-7C CLASSIFIED 1-6D COMICS 5B CROSSWORD 4B DONOHUE 5B FAITH 6-7A FUN & GAMES 4B LOCAL 2-3A, 1B LOTTERY 2A MOVIES 8A NATION 8A OBITUARIES 2B OPINION 4A SPORTS 1-5C STATE 2-3A STOCKS 7C TV 6B WEATHER 8C WORLD 5A
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