The News and Observer from Raleigh, North Carolina • 20

SUNDAY AUGUST 24 2008 rnIE NEWS OBSERVER El 13 4 17-AL noo I rNTIir 4N -441 4 -----7 t4-4--- HUNGER: Col- 1 9 h-- 0 lege students put rs -ice- together 1 million 1 111 gal 0 meals for the htmgry PAGE 2B wwwnewsobservencominews THE NEWS OBSERVER SUNDAY AUGUST 24 2008 MO HUNGER: College students put together 1 million meals for the hungry PAGE 2B h) wwwnewsobservencomnews L'vlro) itaRaillitios skossod Obarna's Denver checklist 0 HIT HARD BY THE ECONOMY LEI? Li A 191 rik Ent wur rifoftkiftLIW The strains of job loss and higher prices show up in a poll Optimism hasn't suffered though Are )pou tetter off or worse off finantialty vs a year ago? tetter Oft or worse off Yet the downturn that has tested household budgets hasn't totally destroyed optimism When asked how their family fi nances will be a year from now 31 We percent said they expected to be 1(Er better off while 15 percent said dm worse off comparable to last Bettel year's responses Want The poll's margin of sampling error is plus or minus 31 per- sa" centage points Karl Matos 31 of Charlotte said 0 KEY: Same 1 only about one in 10 thinks his or her family is better off financially than a year ago That 11 percent response is the lowest in the 28 years of the annual Carolinas Poll Four times as many people said they were worse off the most ever in the poll The rest said their finances were about the same Gloom prevailed in other questions about the economy such as whether the next five years will bring widespread unemployment or whether now is a good time to buy expensive household items BY JEFFERSON GEORGE THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER In a region where growth often breeds optimism families have not felt worse about their finances in many years A recent poll of more than 1000 Carolinas residents reveals that Source: Carolinas Poll The Charlotte Observer SEE POLL PAGE 7B 5 MOVING ALONG 1G- An iPoct Touch for each student? A- rt 1" al 1 7-- 11 SI to i I ti----'- A 't 1 1 4 1 a I 11 tt -7 el' -k' A historic Raleigh home moves to its new resting place a block to the east ryle 'resting he east a El II 11 Lt I School would tap it as learning tool 1 i 1 Ii £9 i '''0''T i'l 7 i -iA 11711141) I( 1 i 11 A 1 13 4 11 ArA'N -14-' 1 ik 4 aa a --0 4 (11 1 Lir lo alaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa a 400' 11') 14 aaa anamonsoamaamaabat11 amsaa1--Z ve AN 41 tttA i 4 4 4 A i 1 i DENVER Remember all the heavy breathing earlier this year about the Democratic convention? How this was going to be the first brokered convention in recent memory? Remember how the choice between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could ft come down to 1 the so-called su- i t3'- perdelegates? i i I How former -) North Carolina iI Sen John Ed- wards might Rob play a pivotal Christensen role with his small number of delegates? Or how a deadlocked convention might turn to Al Gore? Now it looks as if the only heavy breathing will be convention-goers gasping for air in the Mile High City 1 That is not to say that conventions are irrelevant bloviationathons where every Democratic officeholder and Democratic-leaning special interest group gets a i few minutes on the podium to talk to hundreds of political junkies i watching on C-Span I (No North Carolinian is on the 1 speaker list John and Elizabeth Edwards would have been speaking but you know the rest of that story) Conventions still matter as national megaphones however This is one of those moments when can- didates have the nation's attention Given that here is Obama's checklist of things to do this week: CONVINCE MIDDLE AMERICA THAT HE IS ONE OF THEM Obama grew up partly in Hawaii and Indonesia has an unusual ethnic name and went to Harvard And then there is his race has not closed the deal with a lot of swing voters he needs mainly Reagan Democrats white work- ing people white Catholics and white rural people People like to get a handle on a candidate Georgia peanut farmer (Jimmy Carter) Missouri haberdasher (Harry Truman) Minnesota I pharmacist (Hubert Humphrey) 1 "For Democrats it's important that they frame the public under- standing of Obama favorably and make it stick in the minds of the public" said Andy Taylor a pont1 ical science professor at NC State University "Mama is a newcomer kind of a work in progress There is some unease among a lot of swing voters They need to intro duce Obama and produce a simple compelling narrative that sticks in the minds of the public" 2 MAKE PEACE WITH CLINTON This was a long grueling Democratic primary fight Many Democrats were certain that the stars were aligned for the first woman president and there is still major disappointment Obama is likely to 4 do everything he can short of I singing "New York New York" to patch things up He is giving i prominent speaking opportunities to Bill and Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton's name will be placed in nomination 1 WITH THE NATION STILL AT WAR OBAMA MUST MAKE VOTERS SEE HIM AS A CREDIBLE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEE The major weakness of Democrats has been national security Even Sen John Kerry a decorated Vietnam veteran had difficulty overcoming it Remember the 2004 convention where Kerry saluted 1 and said he was "reporting for 4 SHOW SOME SEASONING Four years ago Obama was an Illinois Istate senator who was running for the US Senate Obama has of- ten been called Kennedyesque Like Kennedy though Obama must convince voters he is wise beyond his years 5 RAISE DOUBTS ABOUT SEN 'JOHN 1 McCAIN tying him to the unpopular Bush administration and to an unpopular war in Iraq Con- Ivince voters that McCain is dis- connected from the middle class Perhaps raise issues about his age Cain's Nmexstchweceeldikstwe'll look at Mc- I i BY MATr DEES STAFF WRITER CHAPEL HILL A Chapel Hill middle school could become the first in the country to give an iPod to every teacher and student an experiment that would challenge teachers and administrators to ensure the hand-held devices are used as learning tools not toys It's still not clear how the iPod Touches would be used at Ctdbreth Middle School And school officials know that students may use the iPod Touches more to download the new Jonas Brothers single than to tap the riches of human knowledge But Principal Susan Wells says that to dis- 7 kr ji: miss the tech- nology as a dis- traction or a gimmick tg- nores today's tech-driven A Chapel Hill world school hopes "It's a world to raise we better figure $230000 to out because we pay for these can't ask our students to come into a classroom put those things aside and sit in a row and think we're interesting" she said 'We're just not that interesting" If the project wins funding Culbreth's teachers administrators and students during the next year will develop courses for which iPod Touches are central to the curriculum Other schools could follow Culbreth's model Early ideas include letting students get arts credit by taking online guitar lessons in which they can watch a video of a guitar instructor on their Wod and practice at home Physical education teachers might give take-home fitness assigmnents for students to track their stats calorie intake number of sit-ups they can do in a minute etc and create a podcast demonstrating certain exercises ED Hirsch a retired professor BY MA1 STAFF CHAPEL HILL- middle school cc first in the cotmh to every teacher experiment that 11 sure the hand- used as learning teachers and a It's still not clt Touches would breth Middle Sc officials know kniPoowd Ttl download the net single than to human knowled A Chapel Hill school hopes to raise $230000 to 1 IlLdi 1 0 i 1 1 1 I Roy Leonard III of McLeansville with Blake Moving Co waits under the Merrimon-Wynne house during the historic home's move across North Blount Street to a new lot in Blount Street Commons in downtown Raleigh STAFF PHOTOS BY COREY LOWENSTEIN Merrimon-Wynne house joins Blount Street Commons -a AA AA aA AMA A Mk asS Li AA Ibe a a Mar ao SEE THE MOVE See additional photos from the move at newsobservercom SEE THE MOVE Workers with Blake Moving Co of Greensboro had spent weeks replacing the house's foundation with steel beams and sliding six sets of wheels with hydraulic jacks underneath them They pulled the house using trucks with gears specially designed to pull tons of house The move went in fits and starts a few feet at a time as crews worked under and ahead of the house to prepare for the next surge When the trucks eased forward the crowd of spectators suddenly grew quiet their conversations replaced by the sounds of straining chains and cables and the crunch of wheels on plywood Lindsay Sewell of Raleigh came out to Workers with Blake Moving Co of BY RICHARD STAFF WRITER RALEIGH The Merrimon-Wynne house was built on the north end of downtown Raleigh around 1875 as the home of a judge and US senator Over the years it has been a college dormitory a college president's house and most recently state offices But to survive in a 21st-century city of high-rises and condos the MerrimonWynne house had to move So on Saturday the 4800-square-foot house and one of its neighbors were slowly rolled from their lots on North Wilmington Street over a path of plywood and timbers across North Blount Street The homes are among several grand old BY RICHARD STRADLING houses that will be restored and sold along Blotmt and Person stmets as part of a 21-acre urban renewal project called Blount Street Commons In the end eight of the houses will have been moved to make way for new townhouses condos and retail space The Merrimon-Wynne house is the largest to be moved and at 500000 pounds one of the heaviest The home's white paint is peeling in spots but its Victorian stature and distinctive wood trim shaped like gears bolts and rivets remain intact I SEE MOVING DAY PAGE SEE IPODS PAGE 3B Climate chief decodes data for business farming research it' e4- 711 -6-0 1 vi-' I i 11 Carolina's drought-monitoring program one of the most thorough and reliable in the country "It's a really good setup they've got going" says Michael Hayes director of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln "Ryan's re'ally understanding and humbly so that there is really a lot more that can be done" Boyles says a drought's severity can't be measured solely by a lack of rainfall "If there are no impacts it's just dry weather' he says Equally important he says is how that lack of rainfall is affecting crops local water supplies BY DAVID BRACKEN STAFF WRITER As the 32-year-old director of the State Climate Office Ryan Boyles' mission is to turn the reams of weather data now being collected in North Car- TAR HEEL olina into products that OF THE WEEK can be used by farmers engineers insurance agents researchers and armchair weathermen "Everyone in the state should feel like they have someone they can pick up the phone and call when they have a weather question" Boyles says "That's what we want to be Under Boyles' leadership the State Climate Office has become a key player in North Carolina's efforts to understand long-term climate patterns and better prepare for droughts hurricanes and other extreme weather Boyles whose other title is state climatologist is one of several experts who participate in a weekly conference call to determine how each North Carolina county rates on the US Drought Monitor's classification system "Ryan generally makes that call" says Woody Yonts chairman of the state's Drought Management Advisory Council "He's our leader" Boyles has helped make North Ryan Boyles 32 state climatologist since 2006 has made the state's drought-monitoring system one of the best STAFF PHOTO BY TAKAAKI MAK) robchristenseKtnewsobservercom or (919) 829-4532 SEE TAR HEEL PAGE 11E3 i 1.