Relay for Life Kickoffis Nov. 26; Everyone Invited Stephens' Social
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
r4PVUI$PMVNCVTWFSTVT&BTU #MBEFO8BDDBNBXSJWBMTUPNFFU BHBJOJOUIJSESPVOEPGQMBZPĒT r(BUPSTHFBSJOHVQGPSDIBMMFOHF Sports BU"MCFNBSMF4FFQBHF# ThePublished News since 1890 every Monday and Tursday forReporter the County of Columbus and her people. Tursday, November 15 2012 Pill fraud Waterbrooke charged to Volume 122, Number 40 owners seek Whiteville, North Carolina medical staf, legal action 75 Cents two others By BOB HIGH against state Staff Writer Inside Today By NICOLE CARTRETTE 2-A Prescription fraud involv- Staff Writer ing the forgery of prescrip- r/FXTQBQFSOFFET tions for Percocet and Lorcet The Waterbrooke Assisted Living facility in $ISJTUNBTNFNPSJFT filled at various Whiteville Tabor City may be out of business but owner pharmacies began at the of- Reema Owens is not going quietly. fice of Dr. Andrew Schuett Waterbrooke operators, via attorney Wil- here, with the office manager liam Wrenn Jr. of Oxford, have filed a contest- Next Issue and a nurse’s assistant being ed case hearing petition with the state’s Office involved. It spread to the boy- of Administrative hearings. That action was friend of the office manager’s filed Oct. 26, according to documents released daughter, and finally to the by the Department of Health and Human Ser- boyfriend’s mother. vices on Nov. 13. The state received a copy of the action See Pills, page 4-A Nov. 1. The petition claims that the N.C. Depart- ment of Health and Human Services, Division Ex-lawyer See Waterbrooke, page 8-A arrested for embezzling Election results Monday’s $203,000 American Profle could change features “Good By BOB HIGH Dogs.” Four-legged Staff Writer tomorrow Former Whiteville attor- friends transform By NICOLE CARTRETTE ney Willis Harold Harper Jr., Staff Writer human lives. about 54, has been arrested on a charge of embezzling Friday, Columbus along with all other coun- $203,587.60 from 78 of his cli- ties in the state will get a closer look at ballots DIDYOB? ents during the period of Au- cast in the Nov. 6 General Election. gust 2009 to August 2011. Did you observe ... Staff photo by Mark Gilchrist The Nov. 16 canvass involves consideration Harper was indicted this and counting of provisional ballots cast during month on a presentation by SBI Addison Tew, 12, the election, and with several close state and Agent Steve Combs. The funds Veterans parade local races, recounts could follow. There are 161 winning two turkeys were taken from Harper’s trust Veterans of several military branches rode in the Veterans Day parade provisional ballots to be considered in Colum- account at First Bank here and in Nakina Sunday, past a crowd of several hundred people. with three shots at bus County and one military ballot, according put to his own use, according to to Carla Strickland, county elections director. recent turkey shoot the charge. U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Lumberton Dem- The list of victims includes in the Sellers Town ocrat seeking his ninth term in the U.S. House, some businesses, an estate community? ... Cin- Relay for Life kickof is leads his opponent David Rouzer, a N.C. House See Harper, page 4-A dy Hooks flling in at See Canvass, page 2-A the Clerk of Court’s Nov. 26; everyone invited $200,000 worth The American Cancer Society off is asked to bring an unwrapped criminal ofce? ... Relay For Life of Columbus County gift for a child 15 years of age or of meth seized will officially get underway on Nov. younger, priced at $20 or below. Councilman’s 26 at 6:30 p.m. These gifts will be a part of the here Tuesday Event volunteers and participants effort to give back to the community. email calls for Worth Noting will gather at Barefoot Church in Relay For Life, the world’s largest By BOB HIGH Whiteville (behind the South White- grassroots fundraising movement, Tonight, November 15 Staff Writer ville McDonald’s) for a kickoff rally mobilizes communities throughout suspension Te Whiteville City Schools to launch fundraising the country to celebrate The seizure of about four n Board of Education meets at efforts for the year. people who have battled Edwin Roberts had called for Town pounds of methamphetamine, 6:30 p.m. in the civic room of The rally will feature cancer, remember loved Manager Stevie Cox to be suspended. with an estimated street val- information on how ones lost, and provide Request should have come in closed the Central Services Build- ue of $200,000, is the largest ing on West Walter Street in to sign up for Relay, participants with an op- session, attorney says. amount of the crystal drug ever the theme for the year, portunity to fight back Whiteville. Public comment found in Columbus County. and other activities. against the disease. By JEFFERSON WEAVER will be heard frst. Sheriff ’s Drug Unit detec- The committee Relay brings together Staff Writer tives, working with the SBI invites everyone to friends, families, busi- and authorities in Cumberland participate. nesses, hospitals, schools, A request by Chadbourn Town Councilman and Moore counties, seized the County Deaths All that is needed faith-based groups, and Edwin Roberts to “suspend” the town manager meth Tuesday by stopping a to build a team is enthusiasm for people from all walks of life – all should have been discussed in closed session, Ford Explorer on U.S. 701 By- Whiteville the cause and a group of friends, aimed at furthering the American the town attorney said Tuesday. pass here in front of the State Samantha E. Mondrogon classmates, students, co-workers, Cancer Society’s vision of creating Roberts sent an email to town board Employees Credit Union. Ashley G. Mondrogon and/or family. a world with less cancer and more members last week accusing Town Man- Detectives “ordered” the Teams raise funds throughout the birthdays. ager Stevie Cox of fiscal mismanagement Clarence ‘Tank’ Lennon meth and it was brought from year and on the night of the event to For more information, contact and overstepping his authority. In the email, Sharon Streeter Fayetteville by one of three obtain money to fight cancer. Cyndee Brown, 840-3107, relayforlife- Roberts said he had not received an electronic Fair Bluf Each team that comes to the kick- [email protected] Owen Hammond See Meth, page 5-A See Councilman, page 7-A Clarendon Roger Ardell Stevens Chadbourn Stephens’ social services career was a prayer answered William Dewey Beck By NICOLE CARTRETTE kind of job I used to have,” Stephens said. “God saw me Staff Writer through every bit of that.” This month Stephens, an income maintenance ad- Index Joan Stephens was in a tough situation. ministrator who twice served as interim director, was She had just been fired from a very good job as an area honored for her nearly 30 years of service to the Colum- &EJUPSJBMT" director with Sencland Community Action for what she bus County Department of Social Services. 0CJUVBSJFT" saw as political reasons. She retired in October. 4QPSUT# She was in the middle of a highly controversial She does not hide the fact that an interview at the $SJNF" wrongful termination suit. department in 1983 was a prayer answered. She was left to do anything she could to help her Stephens, the daughter of a Free Will Baptist minis- -JWJOH$ husband support her family. ter, said her faith made a difference in her life. “I subbed at Tabor City Elementary,” Stephens said. She was known for being very upbeat in the most “ I worked at Jones Department Store.” unlikely of places. “All of this was about to kill my mother,” Stephens “A lot of people know me for singing in the bath - said. room,” Stephens said. “I would be in there singing One day standing at the kitchen sink, Stephens made spirited songs; something to lift me up and to get my a crucial decision. day in tune,” she said. “The Lord spoke to me,” she said. “He told me to drop Stephens and co-worker Cindy Hammonds were not that lawsuit and He would open doors for me.” afraid to converse across bathroom stalls. Stephens said she told co-workers at Jones she would “A lot of people don’t talk in the bathroom but we not be there long. did,” Stephens said. “I prayed that the Lord would give me back the same See Stephens, page 6-A Joan Stephens 2-A – The News Reporter, Thursday, November 15, 2012 Newspaper needs your memories State soybean, peanut for annual Christmas edition crops will set records By RAY WYCHE state, the same as forecast By FULLER ROYAL files are already tiny. Please do Staff Writer in the Oct. 1 report and up Staff Writer not format or arrange these docu- from the 84 bushels per acre ments into columns and please do The U.S. Department statewide reported in the A big part of The News Re- not add clip art. of Agriculture (USDA), drought-stricken 2011 har- porter’s Christmas tradition is The best way to submit mul- through its National Sta- vest. the publication of its annual tiple stories or letters is to copy tistics Service, has raised Cotton is forecast to pro- Christmas Memories section – 24 and paste them, one after the its predictions of yields on duce 910 pounds per acre, the pages of stories, poems and art other, in a simple document. two of the four main money same harvest total per acre from readers and their children. No hand-written stories or crops for North Carolina. as last year. The newspaper is again ask- letters will be accecpted. There The new harvest predic- This crop year was con- ing for submissions from readers.