Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • Page 1

ninn mi niV" a EMM' ii Miiii I ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES mn tf 'a $1.50 VOICE OF THE MOUNTAINS November 1, 2009 SUNDAY EDITION LIVE BREAKING NEWS ON YOUR CELL PHONE l40 path spelled trouble An engineer involved in building the interstate through the gorge once complained before its 1968 opening that workers could barely finish blasting and leveling some sections before there would be another slide. Text CTUPDATES to 44636 to get local breaking news on your cell phone. Route 'nothing but fractured rock waiting to fall off" deliveries. And politicians listen and play the game. All this happened when leaders and transportation officials chose to route Interstate 40 through the Pigeon River Gorge in Haywood County, where at least 10 landslides have shut down the highway since 1972.

By John Boyle All road building is political. Residents complain about routes uprooting their homes and neighborhoods. Industry leaders lobby for the roads because they want more tourists, easier truck access, quicker 1 Please see ROUTE on A3 1 1AZ Frank Halth Leonard Hamilton Paul Hewitt 1 1 1 A- NAACP CELEBRATES: The Asheville Branch NAACP on Saturday heard from Minni-jean Brown Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine. Page Bl JOB WORRIES: President Barack Obama tempers hope about the economy with a sober projection that more people will lose their jobs. PageA2 FRIENDS OF DOROTHY: A one-woman show about porothy Parker highlights the local senior theater scene.

Page Dl REINHARDT'S REUNION: Our columnist frets over her high school reunion. Page Dl DOING WELL: Raleigh and the Wake County area have fared better than most of the U.S. during the recession. Page A2 ASU WINS AGAIN: Appalachian State quarterback Armanti Edwards sets more records in a 52-27 win over Furman. Page CI TIME CHANGE ACC leads in minority hires 50 of basketball coaches are black Sidney Lowe By Keith Jarrert GREENSBORO When Bob Wade was hired by Maryland in 1987 to succeed Lefty Driesell, he became the first African-American to coach a men's basketball team in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

ELECTION2009 ASHEVILLE Voters in races large, small head to the polls By Joel Burgess JBURGESSeCITIZEN-TIMESCOM Residents of towns and cities across the mountains will go to the polls Tuesday, casting ballots in races where some candidates have spent thousands of dollars and others none at all. In one of the more unusual contests, Hot Springs Mayor Johnny Norton will try to persuade voters to pick someone else, even though he's the only mayoral candidate on the ballot. Norton has served as mayor for two years but says work as a firefighter with the N.C. Forest Service and owner of a land-clearing operation leaves him too little time for mayoral tasks. He will be urging voters to write in the name of someone else.

In Asheville, a record 3,357 people have already cast ballots during the early voting period. Three of seven City Council seats are up for election as well as the Please soe POLLS on A4 Web extra: Visit for more election articles, photos and video. REMEMBER TO VOTE Polls in municipal races in North Carolina will be open 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Tuesday. For more information in Buncombe County, go to www.buncombecounty.org or call 250-4200.

Tracking black coaches The number and percentages of African-American head basketball coaches In the NCAA's major conferences: Clocks should have IT'- i i been set back one hour at 2 a.m. AP 3 Wade would resign three years later with a 36-50 record amid an NCAA investigation, and it would be almost 10 years later when Steve Robinson became the league's second black basketball coach when he was hired by Florida State. But now half of the league's 12 teams have an African-American coach, a number that is actually down one from last season when Dave Leitao was at Virginia. "I'm living a dream, coaching and competing in the ACC after growing up watching this league," Miami coach Frank Haith, a Burlington native, said last week at ACC Operation Basketball. "In our league we are way ahead of the curve, giving and offering opportunities.

I want to have opportunities based on my ability and not the color of my skin, but on the flip side, it's nice to see some (racial) balance." Oliver Purnell Number Black of Black coaches Schools coaches ACC 12 6 50 Big East 16 3 18 Big Ten 11 :1 9 Big 12 12 3 25 Pac 10 10 "4' 40 SEC ,12 2 16 Totals 73 21 28 Today's forecast Partly sunny High 62, Low 38 WEATHER, CIO A study earlier this year revealod tfiat 22.9 percent of head coaches In Division I men's basketball were African-American. The other black coaches in the ACC are Leonard Hamilton (Florida State); Paul Hewitt (Georgia Tech); Sidney Lowe (N.C. State); Oliver Purnell (Clemson); and Al Skinner (Boston College). Al Skinner Please see ACC on A7 Index BUSINESS H6 CLASSIFIED, PUZZLES 01-8, 08 COMICS INSIDE FORUM A1011 LIVING, ARTS B5-7, DI LOTTERIES A2 MOUNTAINS BU NATIONWORLD A2 OBITUARIES B2-3 REAL ESTATE Fl it SPORTS CUO YOUR NEWS B7 Abdullah plans boycott to delay vote officials, allegedly linked to widespread fraud in the Afghan runoff set for Nov. 7 campaign manager said the candidate might still change his mind, but that "as of now" he planned to call for a the war has intensified in the meantime.

October was the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces with at least 57 American deaths. Western officials hoped that Abdullah would make a gracious exit for the good of the country rather than denounce Karzai for fraud, a move that could sharpen tensions at a time the United States and its allies are seeking unity against the Taliban. Abdullah Abdullah said Saturday. In the meantime, ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah wants an interim government to run the country, Satar Murad told The Associated Press.

Abdullah has called a press conference for 10 a.m. today to announce his final decision after Afghans and Westerners close to the challenger said he would withdraw from the second round scheduled for Nov. 7. His Aug. 20 balloting.

A clouded electoral picture would further complicate the Obama administration's efforts to decide whether to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan to battle the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies. The White House has been waiting for a new government in Kabul to announce a decision, but 0 2 By Heidi Vogt and Robert H. Reld THE ASSOCIATED PRESS KABUL President Ha-mid Karzai's challenger plans to call for a boycott of next weekend's runoff election, hoping to force a delay until spring to allow time to organize a fair vote, his campaign manager A CANNOT NEWSPMfR VOL. 140 NO. 305 100 pgK 2009 boycott.

That decision came after Karzai rejected a series of Abdullah's demands, including removal of the top three election QUESTIONS ABOUT CIRCULATION? Call (800) 672 2472 If it 3 1 11 tivr wuuiy 'S3 it starting at only 9.