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Regional Briefs: N.C. justices rule in favor of 3 cigarette-makers over payments to some farmers
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Published: November 7, 2009
RALEIGH -- The N.C. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that three cigarette companies no longer have to make payments to tobacco farmers in Maryland and Pennsylvania under a 1999 agreement.
The court ruled that Philip Morris, Lorillard and R.J. Reynolds tobacco companies could stop making payments to those growers through the National Tobacco Growers Trust Agreement, which says that the companies could reduce their payments when Congress agreed to a buyout for quota owners in 2004.
The justices ruled that the states entered the agreement knowing that the payments would end as a result of a quota buyout.
The Maryland Department of Agriculture said that farmers in that state and in Pennsylvania would have received $22 million had a trial-court ruling been upheld.
Missing Mount Airy man found dead, but foul play not suspected
MOUNT AIRY -- A Mount Airy man who had been reported missing was found dead yesterday in a small ravine near Reece Street Metal Works on Willow Street, authorities said.
William Henry "Doc" Edmonds, 75, was reported missing by his wife on Wednesday after she last saw him about 11 p.m. Tuesday, Mount Airy police said. Edmonds was suffering from the beginning stages of dementia.
Investigators believe that Edmonds fell into the ravine shortly after he left his house, police said. Foul play is not suspected, but an autopsy will be conducted.
Winston-Salem man to lead college-prep school in Virginia
A Winston-Salem man has been named the headmaster of Virginia Episcopal School, a college-preparatory school in Lynchburg, Va.
G. Thomas Battle Jr. is a graduate of the school and is currently a second vice president of wealth management with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
Battle, a native of Charleston, W.Va., served on the school's faculty from 1987 to 1993. He taught history, coached football and lacrosse, and served as an adviser and dorm master. He has served on the board of trustees since 2003 and has been very active in raising money for the school.
He will begin his new job July 1.
Womble to give commencement speech for Winston-Salem State
State Rep. Larry Womble will be the featured speaker for Winston-Salem State University's fall commencement ceremony on Dec. 18.
The ceremony will be at 5 p.m. at Joel Coliseum.
Womble has a bachelor's degree from WSSU and a master's degree from UNC Greensboro, and he has held a variety of positions in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. He represented the Southeast Ward on the Winston-Salem Board of Alderman and was elected to the N.C. House in 1995.
His volunteer work includes a book campaign that has sent thousands of books to Kenya.
Yadkin County to distribute H1N1 vaccinations next Saturday
YADKINVILLE -- The Yadkin County Health Department will provide swine-flu vaccine to residents from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. next Saturday at its building at 217 E. Willow St. in Yadkinville.
The department will have about 500 doses of vaccine available, said Anna Hamby, a county health official.
Those eligible to receive the vaccine are children 6 months to 24, pregnant women, caregivers of children who are younger than 6 months, health-care providers and emergency-medical-services employees, and people 25 through 64 who have such conditions as heart disease and asthma, Hamby said.
The symptoms of H1N1 or swine-flu virus include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills, and fatigue.
Swine flu is widespread in 48 states, and more than 1,000 Americans have died from the virus. Officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 129 children have died from swine-flu complications since the virus was first identified in April.
In North Carolina, 32 people have died of flu since late September, the N.C. Division of Public Health says. The state numbers do not distinguish between swine and other strains of flu.
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