Local News

The famous man from Tally Ho, North Carolina

Details

Tuesday, 21 January 2025

Written by D.G. Martin

Who is the most famous North Carolinian today?
If you check the latest edition of the World Almanac as I do this time every year, you will find a list of “Famous North Carolinians.”
That list includes the following people, but not today’s most famous person from our state.
Read over the names on the World Almanac list and then I will tell you today’s most famous person: David Brinkley, Shirley Caesar, John Coltrane, Stephen Curry, Rick Dees, Elizabeth Hanford Dole, Dale Earnhardt Sr., John Edwards, Ava Gardner, Richard Jordan Gatling, Billy Graham, Andy Griffith, O. Henry, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Michael Jordan, William Rufus King, Charles Kuralt, Meadowlark Lemon, Dolley Madison, Thelonious Monk, Edward R. Murrow, Richard Petty, James K. Polk, Charlie Rose, Carl Sandburg, Enos Slaughter, Dean Smith, James Taylor, Thomas Wolfe.
But that list does not include the North Carolinian most talked about across the world recently: a man who grew up in the Tally Ho community of Granville County.
On Christmas Day 2021 a $10 billion giant telescope to replace the aging Hubble scope was launched from French Guiana.
The launch was successful, and the device has unfolded its antenna, mirror, and tennis-court-sized sunshield, as it moved toward a final orbit.
The Hubble, at work for more than 30 years, was named for Edwin Powell Hubble, an American astronomer who died in 1953. He was an important astronomer whose work provided evidence that the universe is expanding.
The new observatory-telescope is about 100 times more sensitive than the Hubble. As described by Dennis Overbye in the Oct. 20, 2021, edition of The New York Times, “Orbiting the sun a million miles from Earth, it will be capable of bringing into focus the earliest stars and galaxies in the universe and closely inspecting the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets for signs of life or habitability.”
So, what does all this have to do with Granville County and the most talked-about North Carolinian?
The new telescope is named the James Webb Space Telescope. Like the Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, or Webb Telescope, or simply the Webb, will be in almost every news story about space exploration for many years. Every young person studying astronomy or reading about space will see his name. It will be everywhere.
Why is this critical device named for Webb?
Lewis Bowling, who, like Webb grew up working in the tobacco fields and barns of Granville County, explained in his column in the December 30, 2021, edition of the Oxford Public Ledger, Granville County’s twice-weekly newspaper.
“James Webb, who grew up in the sticks like me, surrounded by great big fields of tobacco was the man most responsible for leading us to the moon.
"Let me clarify something: James Webb was born in Tally Ho near Stem, so he was a country boy like me, but obviously a lot smarter. Webb knew and worked for several presidents and was the National Aeronautics and Space Administration director under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. As former North Carolina Congressman L. H. Fountain once said, ‘for the first time since the beginning of the world there are now footprints on the moon, and the major share of credit goes to a distinguished son of Granville County, James E. Webb.’”
I wrote that I would bet that there will be a new entry in the latest World Almanac’s list of “Famous North Carolinians.”
I believed the new entry would be James Webb from Tally Ho.
But Webb has still not yet made the World Almanac’s list.
I will be looking for Webb’s name when the 2026 World Almanac comes out next fall hoping that its editors do not again forget to add James Webb to their list.

Editor’s note: D.G. Martin, a retired lawyer, served as UNC-System’s vice president for public affairs and hosted PBS-NC’s North Carolina Bookwatch.

(This artist's rendition of the James Webb Space Telescope shows the telescope after being launched into space in 2022. The telescope has since transmitted images of multiple galaxies and star systems. Image courtesy of NASA-GSFC, Adriana M. Gutierrez,CI Lab, James Webb Space Telescope website)

Arsonist who set fire to Market House loses appeal

Details

Tuesday, 21 January 2025

Written by Paul Woolverton, CityView Today

Charles Anthony Pittman, one of the two men who pleaded guilty to setting fire to Fayetteville’s Market House during a protest in May 2020, lost his appeal of his conviction.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling on Monday that the case against him stands.
Pittman, 37, was released from federal prison in March of last year, the Bureau of Prisons website says. Co-defendant Andrew Salvarani Garcia-Smith, 36, was released in November 2022.
Protest turned into looting
Pittman and Garcia-Smith set fire to the Market House on May 30, 2020, a Saturday, amid a George Floyd protest against police violence that escalated into instances of vandalism downtown, then widespread looting across the city.
Floyd, originally from Fayetteville, had been killed five days prior in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by a police officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck while pinning him to the ground and kept kneeling on Floyd’s neck after Floyd fell unconscious. The officer was later convicted of murder.
The Market House, which is city property, has been a center of controversy for decades. According to historians, it was built in the 1830s as a place for the general sales of goods. It was also a site where enslaved people were sold before the Civil War, an aspect of its past that has led some people to call for its demolition.
“As recorded by several media outlets, Pittman carried a gasoline container to the second story of the Market House and waived [SIC] it to the crowd before pouring gasoline onto the floor inside. As the gasoline-soaked area caught ablaze, a City of Fayetteville employee saw Pittman run out of the building,” says a news release published in November 2020 by the United States Attorney Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
“Investigators discovered the identity of Garcia-Smith after a social media post went viral,” the news release says. “As reported by local and national media outlets, the video showed Garcia-Smith picking up a bottle filled with flammable liquids and throwing it into the Market House. The liquid spilled back onto Garcia-Smith, setting his clothes and hair on fire. Investigators found Garcia-Smith in a local burn center, where Garcia-Smith admitted to being the individual in the video.”
The fire produced smoke and flames, but the sprinkler system activated and put it out. Water poured from the building through the evening.
Later that night, people spread across Fayetteville and began looting. They broke into the J.C. Penney at Cross Creek Mall, a Walmart and other stores.
The Fayetteville Police Department had officers surrounding the downtown area and near the stores that were being looted. But the department initially held back on clearing the downtown streets or stopping the looters. Officers had seen firearms among people in the crowds, and the police chief was trying to prevent conflicts that could result in deaths, according to a report issued in February 2022 by the Police Executive Resource Forum.
In the end, no one was killed. Only two were hurt, and one of the two was Garcia-Smith with his self-inflicted injuries.
Guilty pleas, and appeal
Court records say Pittman pleaded guilty in 2020 to maliciously damaging by fire a building that is receiving federal financial assistance, aiding and abetting a federal crime, and inciting a riot. He was sentenced in July 2022 to five years in prison, three years of parole, and ordered to pay $55,524.84 in restitution.
Garcia-Smith pleaded guilty in 2020 to maliciously damaging by fire a building that is receiving federal financial assistance, aiding and abetting a federal crime. He was sentenced in June 2021 to 27 months in prison followed by three years of probation.
Pittman appealed his case, but only on the charges related to setting the fire, not the charge of inciting a riot.

Up & Coming Weekly Editor's note: This article has been trimmed for space. To read the full version, visit https://bit.ly/3DUN5w7

FSU, Department of Public Health spearhead Xylazine, Opioid Crisis research project

Details

Tuesday, 21 January 2025

Written by Anna White

Cumberland County Department of Public Health and Fayetteville State University are partnering in a research project called Understanding the Role of Xylazine in the Opioid Crisis. According to the project description, xylazine is a non-opioid FDA-approved sedative for animals that is not approved for human use, but is increasingly found in illicit street drugs and may have devastating public health repercussions.
The DPH and FSU were awarded a $200,000 grant to fund the project.
“We want to clarify the role of xylazine in this huge, huge battle we’re fighting right now,” said Shanhong Luo, James B. Hunt Jr. Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Fayetteville State University, who is working as Principal Investigator on the project along with other co-PI’s and several students.
“It's very, very challenging for everybody in healthcare, public health, behavioral health, everyone across the board,” said Greg Berry Project Coordinator with both the Cumberland Fayetteville Opioid Response Team and the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition.
Berry and others began noticing patterns that fit xylazine use while working on harm reduction initiatives several years ago. They were seeing wounds not typical of drug use in persons who use drugs (PWUD) and were also reporting altered experiences such as strange tastes and loss of consciousness.
Berry said they reached out to UNC Street Drug Analysis lab in Chapel Hill to obtain test kits.
Those samples confirmed the presence of xylazine in the illicit opioid supply in Cumberland County. Since then, he and others have been working to educate and raise awareness among PWUDs and medical providers about the presence of xylazine in Cumberland County.
According to Luo, they sent out a small, initial survey last summer that confirmed the need for ongoing research and education.
“I’d say more than 50% of the survey-takers weren’t even aware of xylazine,” Luo explained, “I think the community can benefit from a lot more education about this new phenomenon.”
Berry said the medical community is often unaware of the issue and doesn’t screen for xylazine use, sometimes leading to misdiagnosis of the ulcer-like wounds many PWUDs are developing. He described the wounds as “soft tissue necrosis” adding that they don’t heal on their own and worsen over time — especially with continued use of substances containing xylazine. The wounds also present a high risk for secondary infection.
“We've seen people develop serious infections as a result of these wounds that have led to everything from amputations to death,” he said.
They’ve worked with the Southern Regional Area Health Education Center to provide some ongoing professional development and training for healthcare professions, but concluded, “We have not done enough.”
Berry said he’s concerned about the potential impact of xylazine in addiction treatment.
“This drug does have addiction potential, and so there could be complications that people are experiencing while trying to seek care for opioid use treatment.”
Because many PWUDs are unaware that the substances they are using are adulterated with xylazine, many are unaware that they may be withdrawing from xylazine as well as other substances.
Additionally, it’s unclear whether xylazine may play a role in overdose rates. Berry said that while Cumberland County’s overdose rates have been declining over the last 12 months, they’re still problematic.
“I don't want to take away from the tremendous progress that we've made as a community,” he shared. “Those numbers are coming down in a big way. However, even though they're coming down, we are still trending higher than the state average.”
While some research on xylazine is available, according to Berry it is still considered a novel drug, and the research is limited.
“Most of the information and the data that we have is more anecdotal, and there isn't a lot of empirical data, especially in human subjects.”
The project could begin to shed light on unanswered questions.
Luo explained that the project has two major components: survey studies and drug analysis, both of which could eventually help address treatment disparity. The surveys will primarily target PWUDs and health professionals.
According to information provided by Luo, the project will assess the following topics:
(1) Awareness of xylazine including its prevalence and impact on the local community.
(2) Knowledge of xylazine effects.
(3) PWUDs’ experience with using xylazine and health professionals’ experience with treating xylazine.
Some incentives for participation will be made available and PWUDs will be invited to donate drug samples to test for the presence of xylazine. The samples will be sent to the UNC Street Drug Analysis Lab and the results will be uploaded anonymously for donors to see. Survey responses will also remain anonymous.
Luo expressed that the university is enjoying working together with the local government and finds the partnership mutually beneficial.
“It's a very exciting collaboration.” She added that several graduate students are heavily involved in developing study materials and surveys, “They feel like they are learning a lot, not only just from a research perspective but also from the kind of community engagement perspective as well. So they're just very passionate about this project.”
Berry said that if you suspect you or someone you know has been using a substance that contains Xylazine, the C-FORT Recovery Resource Center located at 707 Executive Place Fayetteville can connect you with testing, harm reduction services, and treatment.
“There's help available,” he shared.
“The hope is that this research will make a real, tangible contribution to the knowledge base that we have right now,” Berry expressed. “This is not just local to our area.”

Cumberland County Schools data impacted in data breach

Details

Tuesday, 21 January 2025

Written by Casey Morgan-CityView Today

The state’s student information system, PowerSchool, informed the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction on Jan. 7 that hackers accessed teacher and student information.
While Cumberland County Schools switched to a different student information system this school year, the school system was told over the weekend that its legacy data still stored in PowerSchool was affected by the hack.
“The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has committed to providing our school system with detailed information about the breach, including how many specific students and teachers were impacted and what data was compromised,” Lindsay Whitley, Cumberland County Schools associate superintendent of communications and community engagement, told CityView. “At this time, it’s our understanding that the types of information accessed include social security numbers, student ID numbers, email addresses, etc.”
CCS is working with PowerSchool to notify impacted individuals using the contact information already provided to the school system, including via phone, email and U.S. mail. If an individual is worried about missing a district call because they blocked the number, Whitley said they can call the ParentLink Hotline at 855-502-7867 and select “Option 2” to opt back in.
While PowerSchool might reach out, the company’s webpage about the hack states that the company “will never contact you by phone or email to request your personal or account information.”
The page also provides FAQs to answer parents, educators and school systems’ questions about the breach. The company has also published FAQs for staff and parents on PowerSchool Community, the company’s support portal.
“While this breach involved a system no longer used by CCS, we are taking the situation seriously and working closely with NCDPI as they collaborate with PowerSchool,” Whitley said.
While exactly which years of data were compromised has not yet been determined, this school year’s student and teacher information is safe since it’s held in a different system.
CCS was part of the first phase of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s shift away from PowerSchool as the state’s student information system. Starting this school year, the county’s public schools stored demographic details, grades and other information in the North Carolina Student Information System (NCSIS), powered by software company Infinite Campus and not PowerSchool.
However, as was in the case for CCS, data from prior school years still stored in PowerSchool was up for grabs by the hacker, according to WRAL News reporting on the breach.
“It is important to note that neither Cumberland County Schools nor NCDPI could have prevented this incident, as we do not have administrative access to the system’s maintenance tunnel,” CSS’ press release on the hack stated.
According to WRAL News, PowerSchool determined the threat began on Dec. 19. The company realized it was being hacked on Dec. 28, 10 days before it alerted NCDPI about the incident.
The company’s FAQs about the breach on PowerSchool Community states PowerSchool paid a ransom to the hackers to ensure the data accessed was deleted, according to reporting from information security and technology news publication Bleeping Computer.
Even if data was accessed, a PowerSchool spokesperson told CityView that the California-based education cloud-based software company believes the data taken by the hackers was “deleted without any further replication or dissemination.”
In a report to the North Carolina Board of Education on Jan. 8, Vanessa Wrenn, chief information officer for the Department of Public Instruction, said PowerSchool is working with law enforcement to monitor the Internet and the dark web in case any information is published.
Additionally, PowerSchool worked with the Canadian cybersecurity advisory firm Cyber Steward to determine a data breach had occurred and the stolen data was destroyed. It also worked with CrowdStrike, a data protection company the state uses to secure its schools and infrastructure, to conduct a forensic analysis of the hack.
“I can confirm that PowerSchool has taken all appropriate steps to prevent the data involved from further unauthorized misuse and does not anticipate the data being shared or made public,” the PowerSchool spokesperson said.
For those affected, the PowerSchool spokesperson told CityView that the company is “committed to providing affected customers, families, and educators with the resources and support they may need as we work through this together.”
Whitley said more specifics on what protection measures the company will offer to the district’s impacted individuals are coming. The company’s webpage states it will provide more information about credit monitoring and identity protection services as it becomes once available.
“As we learn more from NCDPI, we will continue to take the appropriate next steps,” Whitley said. “We appreciate everyone’s patience as we address this matter.”