The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • B1

By Carmen Cusido Democratic Party leaders are hoping to fire up young voters, whose enthusiasm helped propel President Barack win four years ago. But with dismal job growth and a recent poll revealing waning excitement among younger voters, it might be an uphill battle. According to an Elon Charlotte Observer poll of likely voters conducted before the start of the Democratic National Convention, youth voter excitement lags behind other age groups in North Carolina. Among 18- to 30-year-old voters, 36 percent are the lowest level of any age group. The poll also shows 58 percent of N.C.

likely voters age 30 and under support Obama versus 34 percent who would vote for Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Barack Obama won in 2008, he carried the youth vote said Michael Bitzer, a political science Elena Botella, 21, a delegate and president of the College Democrats of North Carolina. Botella, a Duke University senior, said she and other College Democrats will reach out to their peers with a message that will resonate. really aim for messaging around college affordability, one area college students really care she said. a clear contrast of Obama making college more affordable and the Romney and (vice presidential candidate Paul) Ryan plan to transfer costs to students and their and history professor at Catawba College.

Romney can eat into that and can make it a 55-45 split, that could swing several key states one way or the The grassroots campaign in university campuses in North Carolina helped Obama win the state by a little over 14,000 votes in 2008, Bitzer said. But many of the DNC youth delegates lastweek said more enthusiasm coming from young voters supporting Obama now than in 2008. College meetings all over the campuses are said Charlotte native SAVVY CITIZEN ELECTIONS Young voters least enthusiastic Poll: Of 18- to 30-year-olds, 36 percent are the lowest of any age group SEE VOTERS, 3B Second suspect held in north Charlotte slaying Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have arrested a second man in connection with the fatal shooting of a man Wednesday in a north Charlotte neighborhood. On Saturday, CMPD arrested Trellis Tremayne Rogers, 17, and charged him with murder and two counts of armed robbery in connection with the shooting death of Zachary Jamal Pittman, 25. Last week, police arrested Brandon Newkirk, 20, on the same charges.

Police said earlier that Newkirk and Pittman had arranged a drug deal before the shooting. The shooting was reported about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, and police said body was found in the 10000 block of English Setter Drive. Detectives asked anyone with more information on the case to call detectives at 704-432-8477 (TIPS). ELISABETH ARRIERO Condo balcony near UNCC collapses; 1injured A deck at a University City apartment collapsed early Sunday, sending several UNC Charlotte students plummetting 12 feet and injuring one.

The injured student hurt his ankle, but is expected to be OK, said the owner, Joe Price, who has owned the apartment in the Colville Condominiums complex for two months. Price said hired inspectors to check out the decks at eight other units with similar decks. also contacted the people who live in those units and told them not to use the decks until they are inspected. never had a problem, Price said. thing separated from the siding.

It cut straight from the building. I said to myself, what could I have done differently? Now, been taking a corrective course of CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR. I-40 tunnel inspections to begin near Tenn. border Motorists traveling between North Carolina and Tennessee on Interstate 40 could encounter delays for the rest of this monthbecause crews are scheduled to inspect three tunnels in the Pigeon River Gorge.

The work is scheduled between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays, from Monday through Sept. 28. The tunnels are between the Tennessee border and Exit 15, with two tunnels on the eastbound side and the other on the westbound side.

Traffic will be reduced to one lane. And on the week of Sept. 24, crews will work on the eastbound tunnel between the state line and Exit 7. STEVE LYTTLE Gilead Road work to begin Motorists in the Huntersville area can expect delays this week because crews are scheduled to make water- main repairs near Presbyterian Hospital-Matthews. Work is scheduled to begin Monday and is expected to last into Friday, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities.

Officials say crews will be repairing a water line leak at the southern side of the Gilead Road-Reese Boulevard intersection. Huntersville officials say the work will be a major repair, and motorists should expect lane closures and shifts during both day and night hours. Traffic in both directions of Gilead Road will be affected. STEVE LYTTLE Across the Region News from Mecklenburg, the region and the state at charlotteobserver.com/local N.C. LOTTERY Numbers drawn Sunday Midday Drawings Pick 3: 6-9-3 Pick 4: 9-6-3-1 Night Drawings Pick 3: 2-7-9 Pick 4: 0-0-9-8 Cash 5: 1-14-15-32-36 S.C.

LOTTERY Numbers drawn Sunday Evening Drawings Pick 3: 1-4-9 Pick 4: 9-5-6-9 Cash 5: 2-8-15-28-35 2 MULTISTATE LOTTERY Numbers drawn late Saturday PowerBall: 6-20-34-44-48 Power Ball: 29 Lottery Results SECTION charlotteobserver.com/local PRESERVING OUR VHS HISTORY Video scavengers bring Found Footage Festival to UNC Charlotte this week. 3B UNC SCANDAL Students defend Afro-American department. 2B IN TRIBUTE Honoring those killed in the line of duty. 3B WEATHER OUR WEATHER GUY KNOWS HOW THE WIND BLOWS. OBSWEATHERGUY By Gavin Off A vehicle struck and killed a 72-year-old man Saturday night around the 3600 block of South Tryon Street, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police reported.

Fredger Allen Bratton died shortly before 10 p.m., when he was hit by a 2004 Nissan Altima driven by a 62-year-old woman. No charges had been filed by Sunday. It does not appear that speeding or alcohol contributed to the accident, police reported. Bratton was not in a crosswalk or crossing at an intersection at the time of the wreck. So far this year, at least 18 pedestrians have died on Charlotte streets, a total that is inching closer toward last 24 pedestrian or bicyclist deaths.

accident marked the second pedestrian fatality on South Tryon Street in 2012. The other happened in March, near the intersection of Crescent Springs Drive, where a 21-year-old Central Piedmont Community College student was killed. Data show there have been several pedestrian-involved wrecks near the intersection of South Tryon Street and Blairhill Road, where Bratton died. The most serious happened in November 2010, when a 12-year-old boy suffered serious injuries after being hit. Police were still investigating accident.

Anyone with information is asked to call CMPD at 704-432-2169. Pedestrian killed on South Tryon Street By Mark Price On average last year, one homeless man got off the streets and into housing every day, through a little-known program run by the Shelter of Charlotte. This year, the program intends to increase the number to 400 men about eight a week with the help of a newly created Housing Resource Center at the shelter, staffed largely by volunteers. Carson Dean, the executive director, said the new mission is grounded in common sense: If it costs $7,000 a year to house a man at the shelter, why not instead find out what benefits he qualifies for (veterans, disability, Social Security), and let him use that to help pay rent on an apartment? The new center will do just that, along with locating apartments in the price range of homeless men, helping them fill out the applicationsand pitching in money on upfront costs. a guy owes a landlord back rent and nobody will rent to him till paid, more economical for us to pay it.

That way, we can free up the shelter Dean said. rather pay off a $1,000 debt and get them out of the shelter in 30 daysthan pay the $7,000 for them to stay in the shelter a year. saving goal in 2013 is to increase the number to an average of 500 men Shelter seeks to house 8 men a week PHOTOS BY T. ORTEGA GAINES- Henry Lee, left, talks to Stephanie Wheless of the Housing Resources Center at the Shelter of Charlotte. Lee, 42, was among the first of the homeless to seek help through the new center, which aims to help homeless men overcome the barriers they face when trying to rent an apartment.

Wheless, left, a team leader at the Housing Resource Center, works with a homeless resident wanting to making a change in his living situation. The Shelter of Charlotte houses about 600 men a night, including a growing number of veterans. Housing Resource Center will get working and disabled men into homes faster SEE SHELTER, 2B By J. Andrew Curliss HOLLISTER A Native American community grieved on Sunday over the death of one of its brightest, recalling the joy of UNC Chapel Hill student Faith Hedgepeth in church sanctuaries, living rooms and at a solemn vigil held at dusk on the sacred grounds of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe. body was found at her Chapel Hill apartment on Friday.

Police are treating her death as a homicide. The news has left the tribe of about 4,000 members in a rural area roughly 90 minutes northeast of Raleigh without words to express the hurt, many said in interviews. is a huge, huge shock and to say the said Melissa Richardson, the tribal chairwoman. community is just reeling from this. Numb.

How could somebody do this to There were tears on Sunday, and hugs. And some smiles, recalling the way Hedgepeth, 19, lived. Friends said that she planned to be a pediatrician, or perhaps a teacher, and that she wanted to return to the area to practice. Gabrielle Evans, 20, a cousin and a close friend, said they had dreams of working together to help their area. was always thinking of someone Evans said.

sweetest person Hedgepeth and Evans both won scholarships from the Gates Millennium Scholars program, giving them N.C. tribe mourns death of UNC student SEE TRIBE, 4B Hedgepeth.