Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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STATE Fewer bids inflate road-paving costs COLUMBIA (AP) — A state au dit shows that more than $200 million in paving contracts awarded since 1995 might have cost more because of a lack of competition. Much of the resurfacing work went to about a .dozen companies that often did not compete with each other outside territories de veloped years ago, according to a recent report by the Legislative Audit Council. Federal antitrust laws pro hibit construction companies from agreeing not to compete across territories because it tends to inflate the price of pub lic works projects. State highway officials say they want more bidders for paving projects. But they don’t think contractors have agreed not to compete in South Carolina. Contractors say it’s easier and cheaper to stick close to a home base. Moving into anoth er company’s territory can cost $1 million to establish an asphalt plant, not including the costs to haul in equipment and hire work crews. Pair of red wolves could save species CHARLESTON (AP) - Two young red wolves moved from Bulls Island to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge could play an important role in pro tecting the species. The male and female wolves are doing well after the move last Tuesday Jo the preserve in northeastern North Carolina. Bud Fazio, who leads the fed eral Red Wolf Recovery Program, says a decision about where to release the wolves will be made within two months. The wolf pair will most like ly go where coyotes have been removed or sterilized, Fazio said. . Three years ago, scientists commissioned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the red wolves would become unrecog nizable as a separate species in 12 to 14 years if the interbreed ing wasn’t controlled. NATION Man with scissors arrested at airport EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N J. (AP) — A Bulgarian national was arrested Sunday at Atlantic City International Airport after federal screeners found a pair of scissors embedded in a bar of soap and two boxcutters hidden in a lotion bottle in his back pack. Nikolay Volodicv Dzhonev, 21, has been charged with pos session of a prohibited weapon. Dzhonev arrived at the air port at 4:45 a.m. for a Sunday flight, Transportation Security Administration spokesman Robert Johnson said. The Bulgarian was the last passenger from his flight to Myrtle Beach, S.C., to pass through the airport’s only secu rity checkpoint, Johnson said. When his backpack went through the X-ray machine, screeners spotted the scissors and pulled him aside. They searched the backpack, finding the scissors and boxcut ters, Johnson said. “The concern was there may have been some effort to conceal them,” said Johnson, who added that the man’s one-way ticket purchased over the Internet in August also raised suspicion. Thousands protest at Cheney’s house WASHINGTON (AP) - Thousands of people opposing a war with Iraq marched to the residence of Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday, culminating three days of demonstrations. Protesters blamed Cheney for pushing the nation toward war. Police estimated about 2,500 peo ple turned out for the peaceful event. Demonstrator threats to shut down the nation’s capital and disrupt meetings of world finan cial leaders during the weekend fell flat, but protest organizers contended their goals were met. Needed attention was drawn, they said, to those seeking more money for global AIDS research and calling for changes in world economic policies. Police had prepared for as many as 20,000 demonstrators. WORLD Iraqi radar system struck by aircraft BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AP) - Coalition aircraft patrolling Iraq’s southern “no-fly” zone struck a mobile radar installa tion near Basra Sunday, along with a missile site in Qalat Sikur. An official Radio Baghdad announcement said the strike further damaged buildings at the airport 330 miles south of Baghdad. A spokesman for the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., said coalition aircraft mon itoring the southern “no-fly” zone used precision-guided weapons to strike a military mobile radar near Basra and a surface-to-air missile site near Qalat Sikur in Nassirya province, 130 miles south of Baghdad. Air Force Maj. Bill Harrison said coalition aircraft never tar get civilian populations or in frastructure. The past week has been a heavy one for U.S. strikes on Iraq as part of routine patrols of the so-called no-fly zones, as global debate heightens over U.S. threats to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for allegedly stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and har boring terrorists. U.S. wants new deal for Iraq inspections UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U N. weapons inspectors might not get the access demanded by the United States unless the Security Council alters a deal made in 1998. The Bush administration dis missed Iraq’s offer to accept the inspectors’ return under previ ous U.N. resolutions. Instead, it wants a new resolution re designing the inspections regime and the powers inspec tors would have to enter Saddam Hussein’s palaces. “We’re certainly aware of what happened last time,” said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the Vienna-based IAEA. “But we uncovered Iraq’s secret nu clear program and we disman tled it. If we get unfettered access, we will be successful again.” U.S. forces build up in Kuwait BY CHRIS TOMLINSON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT - U.S. Marines rode hovercraft last week onto the Kuwaiti shore. They joined Kuwaiti allies for a three-week exercise in the desert. Engineers in Qatar, mean while, are finishing a new for ward command post for the U.S. Central Command. They’re ex pected to arrive in November to direct another exercise from the buildings camouflaged as sand dunes. Special operations forces have put up tents at a new base in Djibouti, across the Red Sea from Yemen. In Kuwait, part of an ar mored infantry brigade from Fort Benning, Ga., sits within 28 miles of the Iraqi border. During a visit to Kuwait last week, Central Command’s Gen. Tommy Franks said his men “are prepared to do whatever we are asked to do.” While the governments of Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia refuse to discuss military matters, their citizens bear witness daily to the U.S. mil itary presence in the region. “From what we’re seeing, it looks like something is going to happen, but it’s hard to know ex actly what,” said Bader al-Otibi, a government worker who was tak en prisoner during the Iraqi oc cupation in 1990. “I’m against war, but I’m also against Saddam.” Along the desert that is shared by Kuwait and Iraq as a border, unarmed U.N. monitors stand guard in a 10-mile-wide demilita rized zone. Experts differ on the number of troops needed to invade Iraq. Deployments already planned would bring the number of troops in the region to near 50,000 by November, which coincides with a U.S.-proposed deadline for Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions. The Marines, in Kuwa'it for the exercise, make up the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, an amphibious invasion force of 2,200 troops. The U.S. Air Force keeps 6,000 personnel and an undisclosed number of planes at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base; 1,700 troops at Incirlik, Turkey; and 3,300 at the al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, currently home to refu eling planes. Several thousand more U.S. Air Force members op £rate from two air bases in Kuwait and hundreds of ground support workers are in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Part of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Benning is wrapping up a rou tine six-month tour as Kuwait’s defenders, waiting to be relieved in November by the 2nd Brigade from Fort Stewart, Ga., a Central Command spokesman said. Tanks and armored personnel carriers for another brigade sit ready in Qatar. Apart from Djibouti, residents of Eritrea have reported U.S.-fi nanced construction at former Soviet air and naval bases in their country on the Red Sea. ’ Abdullah al-Mutairi said he thinks war is inevitable and nec essary. “Kuwait has a lot to lose from a war and Kuwait has a lot to lose if Saddam stays in power,” al-Mutairi said. “It is better we choose war than to continue to live in fear.” Development CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 business school in March 1998, development officials told her it was the minimum amount nec essary for the college to be named after her. Capital campaigns While the Development Office solicits donations for the annual fund all year, it also coordinates long campaigns that target major donors to help USC reach focused financial goals. Heath said a major part of de veloping a capital campaign is to get people feeling good about the university and about giving. The most successful capital campaign in South Carolina his tory was USC’s Bicentennial Campaign, a seven-year effort that ended June 30. The cam paign raised more than $432 mil lion in private support and is val ued at $506 million when pledged money is included. The campaign brought USC’s endowment to an all-time high $302 million and brought in 70 gifts of at least $70 million each. In all, more than 93,000 donors contributed to the campaign. The donors’ “belief that we could succeed and their tireless work helped the university reach a momentum unparalleled in our history and set the tone for our success,” former President John Palms said at the campaign’s con clusion. The campaign’s contributions, which came from local as well as international donors, were so abundant that the administration raised the campaign’s goal three times. The goal was $200 million in 1995 and increased most re cently to $500 million in September 2000. “I have absolutely no embarrassment about passing the offering plate around, even if there’s only one person in the church.” ANDREW SORENSEN use PRESIDENT * Heath said much of the cam paign’s success could be at tributed to good timing. The cam paign reached its peak in the midst of a prospering national economy and major growth in USC’s enrollment. 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