Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • Page 1

ASHEVILLE Saturday February 14, 2009 75 cents VOICE OF THE MOUNTAINS gitizenes legislators back off mil Heste Local health officials predict plan will raise costs Macon County Health Director Jim Bruckner said. "We all think that the decision can be made a whole lot better at the local level," Bruckner said. Macon County commissioners told WNC legislators the new requirements would cost $3.6 million, based on the 15,650 wells built in North Carolina in 2004. Bruckner said the cost would be passed on to property owners and developers installing wells. The complaint prompted Please see WELLS on A8 known as volatile organic compounds.

Those include benzene, a cancer-causing chemical that has tainted wells near a former gas station in Jackson County; tetrachloroethylene, found in groundwater near Moog Component Group's facility in Cherokee County; and trichlo-roethylene, or TCE, contaminating wells near the CTS site off Mills Gap Road. Local health directors say they shouldn't have to test every new well for such chemicals. With help from federal and state databases, they know which areas are contaminated, By Jordan Schrader RALEIGH The General Assembly may back away from a mandate it passed last year to require more testing of new private wells. Testing would be left up to local health officials under a proposal embraced by a bipartisan group of Western North Carolina lawmakers but described by a former legislator as a safety risk to well-water drinkers and a gift to Health departments say the testing they are supposed to start Oct. could add $230 in costs to anyone who drills a Former Rep.

Charles Thomas, an Arden Republican whose neighbors have seen groundwater contamination spread from the former CTS of Ashe-ville plant, scoffed at concerns about cost. "Testing the water properly is a lot cheaper than treating a brain tumor in a 4-year-old," Thomas said. WEB EXTRA Read a letter from the Macon County Board of Commissioners to state legislators asking for less stringent requirements on well-water testing. Health officials sample water from new wells and send them to a state lab to be tested for 19 substances, including bacteria and metals. Thomas successfully pushed last year to add to the list substances Switch to all-digital TV stalls rfSJT' CRASH CLUES: The crew of the commuter plane that crashed into a house in New York Thursday night, killing 50 people, noticed significant ice buildup on the wings and windshield just before the crash, investigators said.

PageA2 DENTAL HEALTH HELP: State health data indicates almost 5,600 Buncombe County residents have never seen a the highest percentage in Western North Carolina. Page Bl TUITION INCREASE: Students throughout the state university system including those at UNCA, ASU and WCU will likely pay more for tuition. Page Bl INFLUENZA ON RISE: Mission Hospital asked friends and relatives of patients to limit their visits to limit the spread of flu. Page Bl 'SWITCHEROONIE': Former Christ.School. twins fess up about switching places at the free-throw line in a college game earlier this season.

Page CI 'CURTAIN CALL: The regular season for area high school basketball reared its conclusion Friday night. Paget CI, C3 and CS '41 ZLt MBS. Sheriff decries gambling decision Judge's ruling foils enforcement of video game ban By Clarke Morrison ASHEVILLE A court ruling has thwarted efforts by law enforcement' officers to shut down a new breed of video gambling machines outlawed by state legislators last year. Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan said his office has taken numerous complaints from residents about family members spending their paychecks at game terminals in convenience stores across the county. Detectives had opened an investigation to identify stores operating the games and shut the machines down before a judge in Guilford County issued a ruling in December preventing enforcement of the state law, he said.

"We're kind of in limbo," Duncan said Friday at a news conference with District Attorney Ron Moore. "Our hands are tied. I would love to see it removed from this county." The state outlawed video poker in 2006. Moore said that sparked the emergence of a new kind of Internet-based video gambling. The game is played from a computer terminal in a business.

Please see GAMBLING on A8 "to SJ! DOW Change BIU SANDERS WSANOERSeCITIZEN-TIMES COM Timothy Edward ef Meet Swannanoa TV works to repair a digital LCD television In his (hep. With the end of analog broadcasting looming, Edwards tent sure what to tell customers who get their TV programming over the air. WLOS delays conversion after Congress extends deadline until June JONES: ge -82 7,850 A7 JONES: Close Today's forecast tions are currently broadcasting in both analog and digital. When each station goes completely digital, the analog signal will be shut off. Older sets without a digital converter box won't receive any signal after the analog shutdown, which has been highly promoted for the past year and was originally set for a national switchover on Tuesday.

Ending analog Earlier this month. Congress agreed to let full-powered TV stations wait Please see TV on A5 By Tony Kiss ASHEVILLE The on-again, off-again transition to digital-only broadcast television continues to be a bumpy ride for local channels. Asheville'a WLOS Channel 13, which had announced its intention to end analog broadcasts on Tuesday, said Friday it will now wait four months. But two regional stations will turn off analog signals Tuesday: Asheville's WYCWChannel 62 (also known as Carolinas CW) and WYMAChannel 40 (My 40). When it happens, the switch won't WW Chance of shower Hlgh55Lw36 WEATHER, JOB LOSSES The delay in the digital TV transition has cost jobs at an Asheville call center.

Pag A7 be noticed by the vast majority of TV watchers, who receive their programs by cable or satellite, get an over-the-air signal on their newer digital-ready TVs or have purchased and installed converter boxes. The converter boxes receive the digital signal and turn it into an analog signal for older TVs. People with newer TVs are already watching digital TV. Television sta Democrats muscle massive stimulus through Congress Index cussing) CU-4 COMICS W-7 UV1NG, HOME tMBOEM M-7, OU LOTTERIES a MOUNTAINS MOVIES NATIONWORU) AH OBITUARIES OPINION PUZZLES CU spobts at ini 0 5 MORE COVERAGE N.C.'s share of the stimulus is expected to be around $6.1 billion. PagA2 Highlights of what is in the compromise package.

Pag A4 SHULER'SVOTE Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, is one of only seven Democratic lawmakers who broke from party leadership to oppose the economic stimulus package. Shuler said in a statement that he would prefer a stimulus plan that focuses more on infrastructure and other ments that have an immediate economic impact Shuler also said he was disappointed that House leadership rushed a vote on the bill without giving members time to fully review it table of their families." Vigorously disagreeing, House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio dumped a copy of the bill to the floor in a gesture of contempt. "The bill that was about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that's about spending, spending, spending," he said. The legislation, among the costliest ever considered in Congress, provides billions of dollars to aid victims of the recession through unemployment benefits, food stamps, medical care, job retraining and more.

By David Espo THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON In a major victory for President Barack O-bama, Democrats muscled a huge, $787 billion stimulus bill through Congress late Friday night in hopes of combating the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Republican opposition was nearly unanimous. The Senate approved the measure 60-38 with three GOP moderates providing crucial support. Hours earlier, the House vote was 246-183, with all Re publicans opposed to the package of tax cuts and federal spending that Obama has made the centerpiece of his plan for economic recovery. The president could sign the bill as early as next week, less than a month after taking office.

Supporters said the legislation would save or create 3.5 million jobs. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer conceded there was no guarantee, but he said that "millions and millions and millions of people will be helped, as they have lost their jobs and can't put food on the HGIWCTTNEWSfWWI V0C14O N0.45 MpCts O2009 QUESTIONS ABOUT CIRCULATION? Cal (100) 672-2472 toi Gam KB HUT t-.