University of South Carolina Libraries
CBamccock H Upstate restaurant boom might lead to problems ■ Health inspectors say they can't keep up with the fast growth Associated 'Press GREENVILLE —It’s tough for South Caroli na’s health inspectors to keep up with the mush rooming number of restaurants across the Upstate, officials say. And they fear it’s just a matter of time be fore a poorly prepared meal leads to an outbreak of serious illness. “We could go from no problem to a huge problem overnight,” said Dr. Ronald D. Rolett, district health director for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. Eight people are responsible to inspect the nearly 1,700 businesses that serve food in Greenville and Pickens counties. “Our workload has really increased, but we have not had any additional staff since 1974,” said J. Michael Parrott, district environmental health director, who oversees the food protection pro gram in the two counties. “It’s pretty hard to keep up.” The federal Food and Drug Administration recommends at least four inspections a year per establishment, but Greenville’s eateries are checked only twice, Parrott said. It’s the same all around the state, says Neal Dufford, director of DHEC’s Division of Food Pro tection. There are just 70 inspectors for 15,500 establishments, a business that is growing at a rate of 200 a year. “At some point,” Dufford says, “we will get stretched too thin, and there will be a problem.” This summer, the state increased permit and inspection fees paid by restaurants, grocery stores and other food service facilities to boost the in spection program’s budget. But the program is operating with a $500,000 deficit and fac^ increasing costs, said Wallace Sheridan, director of district support. Health officials said they will ask the Legisla ture for $4 million, which would add 40 inspec tors statewide to increase the frequency of in spections, he said. Tom Sponseller, president and chief executive officer of the Hospitality Association of South Car olina, said the state should do inspections with funds from the state’s budget, not higher fees on the $4.4 billion restaurant industry. “Public health is one of the first things any government is supposed to protect,” Sponseller said. “As big as our state budget is, there is a way to get it there.” State Sen. Phil Leventis says he’s willing to introduce the legislation because the food inspection program budget should be increased. “This is something we’ve all begun to take for granted,” said Leventis, D-Sumter. Green from page 1 The Nader campaign seems to find much of its strength at the local level, Ciscel said. Party rep resentatives recently manned a table in front of the Russell House on Greene Street to promote the Nader campaign. Ciscel said the table was part of an effort to in form the USC community of the Green Party and its candidate. “Wfe know that Nader doesn’t have a real chance of winning,” Ciscel said. “That’s not really what it’s abotit. It’s about voting for someone we believe in.” Ciscel said he agreed with popular opinion that George W. Bush was a lock for the South Caroli na popular vote in next month’s election, but he said young people wanting to make a political state ment could do so by voting for Nader. “It’s pretty clear that South Carolina is going to go for Bush as a whole,” Ciscel said. Ciscel cited Nader’s commitment to the peo ple and concern for the voters as one compelling reason to vote for him. “Neither Bush nor Gore is coming to South Carolina before the election,” Ciscel said. “Nad er will be here in October. He still cares about the voices and the people of South Carolina.” Ciscel said the real effort behind this year’s campaign is to build and strengthen a third party as an alternative to the Republicans or Democrats. “We hope to win some smaller races in some of the major states, and get some people into of fice,” Ciscel said. “We hope the Green Party will continue to grow through this election.” Nader, a long-time consumer advocate, also made a bid for the presidency in 1996 on the Green Party Platform, receiving 1 percent of the popular vote. The city/state desk can be reached at gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com. • I ^ Thursday, September 28 • Assault and Battery, Woodrow Residence Hall, room 113. A USC police officer was dispatched to the apartment of Joshua Morrison and Charles Legrand after Morrison, 21, had called the USC Police Department stating that he and Legrand, 26, had just gotten into a physical fight. The of ficer called the Community Adviser for Wxxirow, and both went to the apartment to investigate. Both men were still present at the location, and both said the other threw the first punch. Morrison was bleeding from the face and the nose, while Legrand had some bruises on his face. Both men were later transported to Palmetto Baptist Medical Center. The officer on the scene said he had reason to believe at least one of the men had been drinking alcohol before the fight took place. ■ • Suspicious Activity, Barnwell. Complainant Robert Heckel, 75, told police an unidentified male was walking in and out of offices at ran dom. When Heckel noticed the man entering his office, he followed closely behind him. Heckel told officers the man was going through his desk, and when Heckel told to him to stop, the man left the room. Heckel described the man as a black mare in his mid-20s with a thin mus tache, wearing a red shirt, jeans and a baseball cap. «Disorderly conduct, minor in the possession of alcohol, Snowden Residence Hall. The report ing officer responded to a call from an anony mous Snowden resident who said someone was being very loud on a balcony near his room and sounded like he was drunk. The officer walked around outside Snowden and determined the noise was coming from the room of David Snel grove, 18. The officer then proceeded up to Snel grove’s room, where he talked to Snelgrove briefly. The officer said Snelgrove had a strong smell of alcohol on him, and then the officer got permission to search the room, finding several beers. The officer then issued two tickets and set an Oct. 16 court date. • Malicious injury to private property, Pendle ton Street garage. Michael Garry, who works with the U.S. Attorney General’s Office in Raleigh N.C., said someone damaged his 1998 Dodge Caravan by scratching the rear door. Garry told police he was parked on the first level of the garage. Estimated damage: $150. 1 1 Sunday, October 1 • Discharging a firearm into a dwelling, 3432 Piedmont St. The victim, Jerel Dickens, said an unknown suspect fired multiple rounds from an unknown type of firearm, hitting the victim’s residence. One round entered a steel-framed screen door, and another entered through an ex terior window and passed through a wall, strik ing another wall. Both rounds came from the front of the house. One round was recovered from the kitchen floor, and two empty shell cas es were found in the street. The round and cas es were tagged into evidence. Estimated dam age: $250. • Failure to pay cab bill, 716 Washington St. The complainant, Sukhndan Singh of Checker Yel low Cab Company, said he chauffeured the un known suspect from Parkland Plaza in Cayce to the incident location. Upon arrival, the suspect left the cab without paying the fare. Estimated value: $16. Saturday, September 30 • Signal required for turn, simple possession of marijuana, 2500 Booker St. The reporting offi cer, J.P Williams, initiated a traffic stop on the suspect’s vehicle for failing to use a turn signal. Williams received permission from the sus pect, Jennifer Lynn Morrison, 20, to search her vehicle. During the search, Williams observed what was confirmed to be three grams of mari juana in the suspect’s jacket and in the posses sion of the vehicle’s rear-seat passenger. • Malicious injury to personal property, 4200 Main St. (Hyatt Park Elementary School). The complainant, Daniel Cancel, reports that an un known suspect threw a rock at a south-side win dow, causing it to break. Cancel works as a se curity guard at the school and found the damage during his patrol. Estimated damage: $300. • Accidental injury, 3813 Lamar St. The com plainant, Robert Troy Ervin, states that a hubcap came loose from a moving vehicle and struck him the right leg. Reporting officer: N.G. Dow. Friday, September 29 • Petit Larceny, Columbiana Centre Mall. The victim, Peter Sharpe, states he was sitting at a table in the vicinity of mall entrance No. 3, and left with his son to go elsewhere in the mall, leav ing two bags of new merchandise on the floor under a table. When the victim.retumed, both bags of merchandise were gone. The stolen items include three ties and a white shirt. Estimated value: $220. • Found contraband, 4305 Fort Jackson Blvd. (Kroger). The complainant, also the reporting officer J.R. Harmon, stated that he found .2 grams of rolled marijuana at the incident location. The marijuana was put in the property at headquar ters to be destroyed. Underground from page 1 * business, so they really did not know how to run restaurants,” Bames said. “What had happened was it kept changing ownership, and it seemed like every owner was just a little bit worse.” The reputation of the Underground soured as new tenants moved in, according to Bames. “It came from Main Street and wrapped around all the way to Washington, and ba sically it became, a house of ill repute,” Bames said. “There were tattoo parlors down there, and massage parlors, but not the type of mas sages that you see today.” The businesses in the upper part of the arcade became uneasy with the changes that were going on down below. “Smith and Barney was a tenant up here, and they started fielding complaints of how unhappy they were with the clientele of the folks downstairs, and so they ended up leaving this buildings,” Barnes said. The Underground’s burgeoning bad rep utation was further aggravated by conflicts spurred by the tumult of the 1970s in gen eral. “This was in the Vietnam era, and basi cally you had all these soldiers being trained at Fort Jackson, and all these hippies protest ing in the streets, so that became a huge con flict and so you had these big bar fights,” said Barnes. In the end, what might have started out as a good idea failed due to these circum stances, as well as the fact that the entire downtown area became less economically viable as people began to leave the cities for the suburbs. The Underground closed af ter a brief, but memorable, existence in 1975. The city of Columbia is planning to im prove and revitalize Main Street with reno vated streetscaping. But according to city spokesperson Danielle Gadow, the renova tions will not affect the Underground be cause it is privately owned and its fate is up to the owners. Several offers have been made to restau rants to bring their business to the Under ground, Barnes said. He is hopeful that it will open up one day soon. “It’s a shame that we have all that space down there and no one uses it.” The city/state desk can be reached at gamecockcftydesk@hotmaiLcom. - t&i. _: VCR from page 1 nalism and Mass Communications, the Hu manities Classroom Building, Davis and Barnwell colleges and the Russell House. All the VCRs missing were Zenith and Pansonic models. Because police officials will not com ment on the string of missing VCRs, it isn’t known at this time whether addition al VCRs are missing from other classrooms that university officials are not aware of. All but a couple of the missing VCRs were reported to police by USC Distance Education employee Steven O’Dell. O’Dell, who wouldn’t comment on the case Sunday, directed all questions in the case to Snyder and Steven Adams, manager of classroom technology and distance education. All the VCRs were stolen from carts that had VCRs bundled with televisions, Adams told The Gamecock in early Sep tember. There are 150 such combinations of TVs and VCRs on campus, Adams said. He said all the missing VCRs were part of a program that started last year to bring TV and VCR combinations to large class rooms so professors could use educational aids without having the difficulty of reserv ing equipment. “Wfe felt it would have been of great ben efit for students and teachers to have TV and VCRs readily available in the classroom,” Adams said. “We are very eager to take steps to protect the security of these units and get to the bottom of what is going on.” Adams said it’s highly unusual for so many VCRs to be missing, adding that the university only reported two stolen VCRs from classrooms during this past spring se mester. In most of the cases, the VCRs were lo cated in rooms that were not secured, al lowing someone the opportunity to simply walk out of the classrooms canying the VCRs. The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@hotmail.com. Local man fears advent of one-world government * ■ John C. Lefemine says U.N., powerful politicians conspire on global level by Eugene Rodillo The Gamecock It has all the making for an excellent “X-Files” episode: a global conspiracy to take over the world, presidential candidates who could possibly be work ing for a certain government faction and an un suspecting public waiting in the wings. It might not be as unrealistic as you think, to^ hear one local man tell it. John C. Lefemine, a Columbia resident, thinks that one day everyone will be under a one-world government. Several documents written by Lefem ine cited possible examples to help support his the ory. Leiemine saiu ne uwuu> uie urnieu nauuiia one of the leaders in the fight for the one-world government. At an event prior to the Millenni um Summit, there was a meeting of the Inter parliamentary Union, and Lefemine thought the general sense of the meeting was aimed towards globalization. Also, Lefemine said the purpose of the Mil lennium Assembly was to approve the Charter For Global Democracy, or preparing the United Na tions for “global governance.” This U.N. govern ment could have a United Nations Global Army under its control and would implement the Unit ed Nations Global Tax, which would collect more than $1 billion a year. If the United Nations were to form a one-world — government, the United States would lose its™ sovereignty, Lefemine said. He said the United Na tions would override the Constitution, and the rights to freedom of press, religion, speech and assembly would no longer be protected. He said the United Nations didn’t think these were God-given rights and that the government would be the ones mak ing the laws, therefore making the laws adaptable to their will. The rights of all Americans would no longer be unalienable, he said. He warned that it is not only international per sonnel trying to have this type of government put into power, but that there are also American con tingents who share this belief. Another group that Lefemine cited as pro-one world government was the Council on Foreign Re lations, or the CFR. He said many leaders and those prominent in the public eye are part of this orga nization, including Republican presidential candi date George W. Bush, Colin Powell, vice-presi-_ dential hopefuls Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman,™ and Bill Bradley. One source Lefemine cites to support his the ory is an article entitled “The Definition of Tyran ny,” by John F. McManus. In the article, McManus writes, “The CFR’s _1_1__J_* LI.. ~1-f_*L« rtnrt. puipuov/ uiu own uuuv/iuuuij vivui ii win mv to submerge our nation into a socialist, one-world government.” Lefemine thinks that, even though these po litical figures might seem to have a different agen da, they are all ultimately working toward the same goal. He also said that while Geoige W. Bush was a member of the CFR and Democratic presidential candidate A1 Gore was not, they are both proba bly working together. “I would call both Gore and Bush Jr. to be pup pets of the establishment of the CFR establishment the Council of Foreign Relations establishment, ^ Lefemine said. The general public has been kept in the dark about what these governmental officials are really doing, Lefemine maintained The CFR has so many member plugged into key positions - in this case the media, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, both mem bers of the CFR, Lefemine said. USC government and international studies pro fessor Robert Oldendick disagrees with Lefemine. Oldendick said there is no validity in the claims of any kind of one-world government conspiracy. He said it was more likely that the United States was just being more cooperative with the other countries to make the world a better place. “Just because the U.S. is working with other countries ... it does not mean there is a blueprin^ to give up the sovereignty of our country,” Old endick said. “Increasing global cooperation does not mean one-world government.” The city/state desk can be reached at gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com. STUDENT ORIENTATION LEADERS Develop Leadership Skills, Network with Faculty and Administration at USC, Earn Professional Job Experience, Help New Students and Parents Adjust to University Life, Travel to Regional Conference, Receive Great Financial Rewards Information sheets and applications are available in the Student Orientation Office, 345 Russell House Application Deadline: October 26, 2000 # i-- ■ fc-- . K =+==-p