Rocky Mount Telegram from Rocky Mount, North Carolina • 6

Rocky Mount Telegram THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014 www.rockymounttelegram.com ROCKY MOUNT Police search for robbery suspect Rocky Mount police are searching for a man suspected of brazenly stealing money from a local convenience store. According to police reports, a 21-year-old female clerk called police to the Circle on the 700 block of North Wesleyan Boulevard to report a theft. The woman told police she was cleaning in the back of the store around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday when a man entered the store and asked for change. The victim opened the cash register to get the change, but the man reportedly grabbed cash from the drawer and ran out the door.

The suspect is described as a 6-foot tall black man with a slim build, dark complexion, short hair, a black and aqua ballcap, blue jeans and a white T-shirt. He was last seen running toward Sam's Club. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 977- 1111 or Text a tip to police at 274637 by beginning messages with RMPOL to direct the tip to the Rocky Mount Police Department and type up to 155 characters about the information. GASTONIA Best law, military snipers compete Teams from 13 states and Canada are looking to improve their skills and capture honors during a competition in North Carolina. The Gastonia Police Department is hosting the 2014 Sniper Conference beginning Wednesday at the Gastonia Police Firearms and Tactical Training Center.

During the competition, the teams will compete in nine events designed to simulate real-world situations that professional snipers face. The event will be open to law enforcement and military only Wednesday and Thursday. The general public is invited to watch on Friday and Saturday, Admission is free, and there will be controlled shooting events for the general public on Saturday. From staff, wire reports AP PHOTO Wrightsville Beach Elementary fifth-grade teacher Lynn McGary works with a group of students Wednesday in the hallway at Wrightsville Beach Baptist Church in Wrightsville. The church is located down the street from the school and is used for fifth-grade classrooms due to lack of space at the school.

UNC academic probe finds systemic problem AP PHOTO Kenneth Wainstein, lead investigator into academic irregularities at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, holds a copy of his findings following a special joint meeting of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors and the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees Wednesday in Chapel Hill. WRIGHTSVILLE CHAPEL HILL (AP) More than 3,100 students nearly half of them athletes enrolled in classes they didn't have to show up for and received artificially inflated grades in what an investigator called a "shadow curriculum" that lasted nearly two decades at the University of North Carolina. The report released Wednesday by former high-ranking U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein found more far-reaching academic fraud than previous investigations by the school and the NCAA. Many at the university hoped Wainstein's investigation would bring some closure to the le longrunning scandal, which is rooted in an NCAA investigation focused on improper benefits within the football program in 2010.

Instead, findings of a systemic problem in the former African and Afro-American Studies department could lead to NCAA sanctions. At least nine university employees were fired or have had disciplinary procedures started against them in light of the report, chancellor Carol Folt said. She wouldn't identify them. American Studies department that "I think it's very clear that this required only a research paper is an academic, an athletic and a that was often scanned quickly university problem," Folt said. and given an A or regardless of The report outlined courses the quality of work.

in the former African and Afro- The NCAA hit the football pro- Blue Cross reveals increase in 2015 insurance rates gram in 2012 with scholarship reductions and a postseason ban, though the academic violations focused mainly on a tutor providingimproper help to players on papers. The NCAA said it reopened its investigation in June because new information was available. Wainstein's staff has briefed NCAA investigators at least three times, and plans another meeting on the final report. The report outlined how the fraud ran unchecked for so long, as well as how faculty and administration officials missed or looked past red flags, such as unusually high numbers of independent study course enrollments. It said athletics staffers steered athletes to classes that also became popular with fraternities and other everyday students looking for an easy grade.

"By the mid-2000s, these classes had become a primary if not the primary way that struggling athletes kept themselves from having eligibility problems," the report said. The school hired Wainstein in ary for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. Aside from those policies, the insurer is ntainingpreexisting plans that don't conform to the Affordable Care Act's requirements but that customers wanted to keep. The Obama administration said in March that it was allowing a two-year extension for individual policies that don't meet the health law's requirements. The insurer said its 1 rates for those pre-existing individual plans will rise by an average of 13.4 percent for policies sold before the federal ENFIELD Clarence Smith, 90, died on Sunday, Oct.

19, 2014. Funeral Service will be Sunday at 3:00 p.m., at Saint Paul Baptist Church. Visitation 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Saturday at Clark Funeral Home. William Frederick "Fred" Stone, 92, died on Friday, Oct.

17, 2014. Funeral Service will be Saturday at at Pineview Cemetery. Arrangements are by Johnson and Cremations. GARYSBURG, Howard Grady Davis, 61, died on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014.

Memorial Service will be Saturday at at H.D. Pope Funeral Home of Roanoke Rapids. LOUISBURG Dorothy S. Person, died on Tues day, Oct. 21, 2014.

Arrange ments are by Richardson Funeral Home of Louisburg. NEW YORK, NY Agnes died on Tuesday, 2014. Arrange ments are by Richardson Funeral Home of Nashville. February. Unlike previous inquiries by former Gov.

Jim Martin. and the school, Wainstein had the cooperation of former department chairman Julius Nyang'oro and retired office administrator Deborah Crowder the two people at the center of the scandal. Nyang'oro was indicted in December on a felony fraud charge, though it was dropped after he agreed to cooperate with Wainstein's probe. Crowder was never charged. It was Crowder who started the paper classes as a way to help struggling students with "watered-down requirements" not long after Nyangoro became: chairman of the curriculum in 1992, according to the report.

Though not a faculty member, she managed the courses by registering students, assigning them topics and then handing out high grades regardless of the work. By 1999, in an apparent effort to work around the number of independent studies students could take, Crowder began offering lecture classes that didn't meet and were instead paper classes. RALEIGH (AP) North Carolina's largest health insurer said on Wednesday that 2015 rates will rise by more than 13 percent on average for people who buy their own Affordable Care Act policies. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina discussed the expected 1 rate increases in a teleconference several weeks ahead of the Nov. 15 kickoff for the enrollment period for coverage starting in January.

Blue Cross said rates would rise an average of 13.5 percent for 315,000 customers who enrolled this year in individual plans that comply with President Barack Obama's health insurance law. It cautioned that the increase for each policy will be affected by factors including age, location and plan level. As an example, the insurer said a 45-year-old nonsmoking man in the Raleigh area who didn't receive subsidies would see his monthly premium rise by about $57 to $421.32 per month on a typical individual ACA silver plan. The vast majority of customers, however, receive subsidies that will insulate them from rate increases. Individual policies refer to those that are separate from employer-based or group coverage and can also include family members and dependents.

"It is important for customers to understand their health care needs, update their information to get the subsidy amount they are eligible to receive and select an insurance plan with the level of coverage they want at a price that works for them and their family," said Patrick Getzen, vice president and chief actu- OBITUARY DEATHS BLACKSBURG Nancy Barrett Thorp, 88, died Tuesday, October 21, 2014 in Blacksburg, Va. She was born January 8, 1926 in Wilson, N.C., the daughter of Childs D. Barrett and Alta Cuthrell Barrett. She was predeceased by her husband, Adam T. Thorp, and a son, Adam T.

Thorp III, and is survived by sons Daniel B. Thorp, of Shawsville, and his wife, Elizabeth Knapp, and Adam T. Thorp, IV, of Wilson, N.C, and his wife, Kay Thorp, and by grand-son Michael Thorp, of New York City. She was devoted to her family and will be missed by them. Internment will take place at a later date at Pine View Cemetery in Rocky Mount.

The Rocky Mount Telegram publishes free of charge all area death notices, including funeral arrangement information. A fee is charged for obituaries. For more information, call 446-5161. Sell it in the Classifieds. Call 446-5161 Rocky Mount TELEGRAM law was signed by Obama in March 2010.

Individual plans sold by the insurer between then and October 2013 when the health overhaul exchanges opened will have rate increases of 19.2 percent on average. Blue Cross said about 239,000 people were enrolled in those pre- existing plans in 2014. One factor affecting premiums is how costs are spread among the mixture of people of varying ages and health care needs. Blue Cross said in a news release that the group buying its individual ACA plans was older than expected because many younger, healthier customers stayed in pre existing plans. "There needs to be a mix of customers within each category to balance risk and expected costs," Getzen said.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina was the only insurer to offer ACA plans in all 100 of North Carolina's counties in 2014. With more than 3.8 million members in North Carolina, the insurer's policies on the individual market represent a fraction of its overall business. WWII merchant shipwreck found Nancy Barrett Thorp HOLLISTER Lynwood C. "Bro" Cyrus, 85, died on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014.

Funeral Service will be Friday at 11:00 a.m., at Pine Chapel Baptist Church. Visitation 10:30 to 11:00 a.m. at the church. Arrangements are by Richardson Funeral Home of Louisburg. LITTLETON Rosa C.

Alston, 64, died on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014. Funeral Service will be Friday at 1:00 p.m., at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church. Visitation 3:00 to 7:00 p.m today at Richardson Funeral Home of Nashville. WHITAKERS Annie Pittman Grant, 91, died on Saturday Oct.

18, 2014. Funeral Service will be Saturday at 2:00 p.m, at Greater St. Marks Missionary Baptist Church. Visitation noon to 6:00 p.m. Friday at Hilliard Funeral Home.

Cleveland Parker, 64, died on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014. Funeral Service will be Saturday at 1:00 p.m., at Morgan Funeral and Cremation. Visitation 11:00 a.m to 12:45 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home.

RALEIGH (AP) In the aptly named Graveyard of the Atlantic off the North Carolina coast, researchers have found the wrecks of a Nazi U-boat and the ship it sank during a World War I convoy. "That whole battlefield scene is said Joe Hoyt of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, chief scientist for the expedition. "Both sides of the story are represented as a memorial to history." A research team using sonar found the wrecks of U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields on Aug. 30 in waters off Cape Hatteras, just 240 yards apart. The U-boat had attacked the Bluefields, which was operating under the flag of Nicaragua and was part of a convoy of 19 merchant ships.

The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard were escorting the ships from Norfolk, Virginia, to Key West, Florida, when the U-boat attacked on July 15, 1942, sinking the Bluefields and damaging two other ships. A U.S. aircraft bombed the U-boat and a merchant ship attacked with a deck gun. All 45 men aboard the U- boat died and are believed entombed in the shipwreck; no one on the Bluefields was killed, Hoyt said.

NOAA delayed releasing information about the discovery until Tuesday to give the German time to track down and notify any survivors of the 45 men, Hoyt said. The German Foreign Office told NOAA that it's not interested in recovering the remains but asked the U.S. to view the wreck as a war grave. "As such, they are under special protection and should, if possible, remain; at their site and location to allow the dead to rest in peace, the foreign office said in a statement provided by NOAA. The shipwrecks are in such deep water, about 700 feet, that it's unlikely divers would be able to reach the site, Hoyt said..