Homeless woman leaves legal legacy

CHAPEL HILL --Barbara Sims' legal advocates say she leaves a legacy for other homeless people in Orange County.

"Barbara Sims may have been homeless, but she wasn't powerless," said Katherine Lewis Parker, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.

Parker has been negotiating with the Orange County Sheriff's Office to change a policy after Sims and her husband, Taz Herbert, lost most of their possessions when deputies removed them from a camp in a field at the intersection of Interstate 40 and N.C. 86 last July.

Efforts to reach the Sheriff's Office for comment Friday were unsuccessful.

Parker wants deputies to notify homeless people before personal property is confiscated and provide an opportunity for them to reclaim their belongings before they are destroyed.

"We are so sad that Barbara didn't survive to see the policy put into effect," said Alistair Newbern, a faculty member at the UNC School of Law, who is helping Parker on the case.

"Barbara didn't have much in terms of worldly possessions," he said. "Nevertheless, she stood up for her rights and the rights of other homeless individuals in Orange County." Sims was killed May 17 when she was hit by a truck on Weaver Dairy Road. The accident remains under investigation.

-- Jesse DeConto, 932-8760; jesse.deconto@nando.com

Moeser gets new wheels, program funds

CHAPEL HILL -- Retiring UNC Chancellor James Moeser got two big gifts Thursday.

The first was $6 million from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust that moves the university closer to Moeser's goal of doubling the size of the Honors Program. The program offers small classes and a more rigorous curriculum to select students.

The second gift caught Moeser off guard. Trustees led him to the parking lot of the Carolina Inn, where they presented him with the keys to a shiny new Toyota Camry festooned with a big Carolina blue ribbon. It was a personal retirement gift from the trustees.

"I don't know what to say," Moeser said as he walked toward the new car, a stand-in until an ordered hybrid version arrives. "I love it. I really love it."

The trustees heaped praise on Moeser for his eight-year tenure, during which he helped raise $2.38 billion, created a nationally recognized financial aid program and forcefully defended academic freedom in a post-Sept. 11 debate over teaching about the Quran.

The chancellor will retire June 30.

-- Jane Stancill, 956-2464; jane.stancill@nando.com

County prisoners help build 'peace center'

The chaplain's windowless office is the only place where Bill Rasor, a prisoner at the Orange Correctional Center, can find some peace.

But Rasor is working hard to help change that. The 40-year-old prisoner has earned the right to leave the prison for fundraising drives at churches, collecting money for a "peace center" at the minimum-security correctional center in Hillsborough. The center would provide the prison's 180 men with a worship space and conference room.

The idea, nearly a dozen years in the making, is finally edging toward reality. Construction, using prisoner labor, is expected to begin this summer.

The brains behind the peace center belong to the Rev. Ken Barker, a Baptist minister. Lack of space now prevents him from doing much more than meeting with prisoners one-on-one in his office. The peace center, an 80-foot-by-30-foot metal structure encompassing about 4,000 square feet, will allow Barker and a group of about 100 community volunteers to increase the number and variety of programs.

Several area churches have made significant contributions in the past few years. Binkley Baptist Church in Chapel Hill put up $25,000, and so did the now disbanded Chapel Hill Church of Christ. Nearly a dozen other churches in Orange and Alamance counties donated around $5,000 each. The project includes no government funding.

-- Yonat Shimron, 829-4891; yonat.shimron@nando.com/align>