SATURDAY
JOB GRINCH: Holiday hiring prospects appear weak. SUNDAY
November 14, 2009 125th year No. 318
LOST IN THE FIRE: Church seeks donations after food bank destroyed. 2A
www.hpe.com High Point, N.C.
CLOSE CALL: HPU women fall 1-0 to Tar Heels in NCAA soccer. 1C
Wiley retiring
DISTRICT
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The 61st State House District covers parts of High Point, Jamestown and southwest Guilford County. The district leans Republican and has been represented by a GOP state legislator since it was redrawn for the 2002 election based on the last census. The district has 45 percent registered Republican voters, 37 percent registered Democrats and 18 percent unaffiliated, according to N.C. General Assembly figures.
50 Cents Daily $1 Sundays
Lawmaker to call it quits after term ends House District, said she will serve through the start of the 2011 legislative GUILFORD COUNTY – State session. The winner of the Rep. Laura Wiley, R-Guil- general election next Noford and the lone High vember for the 61st District Point resident in the N.C. will assume the seat when General Assembly, an- the General Assembly connounced Friday she won’t venes in January 2011. seek re-election next year. Wiley said she’s stepping Wiley, the three-term representative in the 61st WILEY, 2A BY PAUL B. JOHNSON ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE FILE
State Rep. Laura Wiley is a three-term representative in the 61st House District.
Soggy weather clearing
WHO’S NEWS
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Michael Collins, associate professor of information systems at High Point University, recently presented a paper titled “Modeling Access Rights Using the CRUD Security Cube: An Extension Incorporating Time.” The presentation was at the 2009 Southeast InfORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) conference.
INSIDE
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SMOKING BAN: Health department to launch information campaign. 1B SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE
The dock at High Point City Lake disappears into the lake along with the dock between the boats. The water level was 2 feet above normal Thursday morning after three days of relentless rain in the Triad.
Council tackles showroom district Monday BY PAT KIMBROUGH ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – City Council on Monday is scheduled to consider adopting a zoning district that would guide the development of new High Point Market showrooms. The council will consider a request by the city’s Planning and Development Department to amend the development ordinance to establish the market overlay district and apply the district to approximately 249 acres in downtown High Point. New showrooms would not be allowed outside the district. The proposal will be the subject
of a public hearing during Monday’s council meeting. The district is based on a City Project recommendation and is aimed at making the market area more compact while fostering the development of businesses besides showrooms in the downtown area. The proposed district boundary takes in the majority of existing showroom square footage. Existing showrooms outside the boundary could continue as such as long as they haven’t ceased operations for more than two years. They also would be able to seek an exemption from the city that would allow them to expand, with some limitations.
The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the district, but the idea has generated opposition from property owners on the fringes of the boundary. They argue that being outside the district will devalue their property. Opponents also have criticized the proposal because it leaves out areas where several showrooms exist, such as portions of Wrenn and N. Main streets. Proponents say the district is needed to help revitalize the downtown area, which hasn’t been able to draw much retail business and other uses because the existence of showrooms in widely scattered
areas has contributed to inflated property values. The proposal takes into account recent trends that indicate the market has been contracting and using less square footage within existing showrooms. Also on Monday’s agenda is the proposed University Area Plan, which would guide the growth of High Point University. The council discussed the plan last month but didn’t take action, opting to continue the study of issues such as whether new campus development should be contiguous to the school’s existing boundaries.
OBITUARIES
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Carl Borum Jr., 83 Lucille Cross, 84 Jeremy Hedrick, 24 Benjamin Hill, 79 Thelma Hoffman, 72 Keun Jon, 43 Arlene Lewey, 81 Carolyn McKever, 64 Roy Poole, 81 Eloise Schultheiss, 87 Tecoria Workman, 86 Eula Worthy, 78 Obituaries, 2-3A,2B
WEATHER
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Mostly sunny High 70, Low 45 8C
pkimbrough@hpe.com | 888-3531
INDEX
Many politicians bank on a 2nd chance BY PAUL B. JOHNSON ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
DAVIDSON COUNTY – Supporters of former sheriff Gerald Hege hope that his bid for election to the seat he relinquished in infamy five years ago will reflect the theory that voters are willing to give politicians second chances. Hege announced earlier this month that he will seek the Republican nomination for sheriff next year, a position he was forced to resign in 2004 when he pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice. Two other Republican candidates – Sheriff David Grice, who replaced Hege, and retired N.C. State Highway Patrolman Terry Price – have announced they will run in the May 4 sheriff’s primary. Few politicians in modern American history have sought office after criminal convictions, and their track records are mixed, a pair
second try,” said John Dinan, professor of political science at Wake Forest University. The most well-known comeback involves District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry, the Democrat who was arrested in 1990 on drug charges after being filmed smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room during an undercover law enforcement sting. Four years later, District of Columbia voters elected him mayor again. Former Democratic congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana was charged by federal officials with bribery in 2006, but he SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE was re-elected later that year. He Gerald Hege announced earlier this lost his seat in last year’s election month that he will seek the GOP while facing trial. nomination for Davidson County Last year in the Alaskan Senate sheriff next year. race, longtime Republican Sen. Ted Stevens almost won re-election of area political analysts say. despite being convicted on corrup“It doesn’t happen all that often tion charges about a week before that you have candidates with Election Day. criminal records trying to make a Earlier this year, Stevens’ con-
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viction was vacated by the Justice Department because of prosecutorial misconduct. In cases where candidates with a criminal past succeed, the passage of time helps. Some voters minimize the offenses, while candidates have the chance to recast themselves, Dinan said. “But it’s not going to be ignored, and it will come up in the race. The question is how do you handle it,” Dinan said. The public perception of the criminal case against a politician can influence the opportunity for a comeback, said Matthew DeSantis, assistant professor of political science at High Point University. “If the public feels as if the politician was embattled somehow, that it was the system out to get this politician, then they are more likely to turn around and not hold it against them,” DeSantis said. pjohnson@hpe.com | 888-3528
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