U.S. is not safer, Price tells thinkers

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. David Price, the man in Congress who sends money to the Department of Homeland Security, does not think we're safer than we were Sept. 10, 2001.

In a speech Monday, Price said President Bush squandered global good will after 9/11, punted on the Middle Eastern peace process and effectively issued a self-fulfilling prophecy with his "axis of evil" description of North Korea, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, said he does think the United States is better prepared to deal with specific threats in the wake of 9/11.

Price has long advocated what he calls a "diplomatic surge," saying the United States should focus its attention on diplomacy in the Middle East to attract and maintain allies rather than continuing the war in Iraq.

Price spoke to the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a progressive think tank. He also listed his priorities as chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, where he is responsible for shepherding through a $40 billion spending bill.

Among Price's goals:

• Focus immigration reform on criminal aliens rather than workplace raids.
• Get the Federal Emergency Management Agency in good working order.
• Give more attention to first responders around the country when allocating grants.

-- Barbara Barrett, (202) 383-0012; bbarrett@nando.com

Event kicks off sales of downtown condos

CHAPEL HILL -- An event will be held Friday afternoon to mark the opening of residential sales for 140 West Franklin Street, the new name for the eight-story condominium and retail project to be built on what is now Municipal Parking Lot 5 downtown.

The sales office has opened at 206 W. Franklin St. The event will be at a festival tent at 126 W. Franklin St. next to the parking lot between West Franklin and West Rosemary streets.

The event will open at 4 p.m. with developer John Florian of Ram Development Co. and Town Council member Bill Strom. The council member is the former chairman of a town committee that worked on the project to convert the lot into a $75 million three-section building complex combining condominiums, retail shops, parking and a public plaza.

Ram may start construction this fall. The completed project is expected to generate about $1.06 million in new property and sales taxes and other revenues to the town and a similar amount to Orange County and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school systems, according to town officials.

-- From staff reports

Charges dropped for shooting suspects

HILLSBOROUGH -- A judge cleared the courtroom, protected two witnesses' identities, and refused to lower the bail for a shooting suspect who police say is a gang member.

The suspect's mother and attorney denied that Hakeem Hubbard, 18, belongs to the Crips gang in the Turnkey neighborhood of East Durham. Police are too quick to call groups gangs, said the mother, who would not give her name.

But Hillsborough police are relying on Durham Police Department intelligence, and that was enough to persuade the prosecutor and judge to hold Hubbard under $500,000 bail.

Four people originally were charged in the shooting May 29 of Lakendrick Watts, 31, in the Fairview neighborhood in Hillsborough. Watts suffered damage to his lower intestine.

On Monday, Assistant District Attorney Lamar Proctor dismissed charges against two young men who then testified against Hubbard in a probable cause hearing.

Hubbard'ss attorney argued there wasn't enough evidence to keep his client in custody. But Judge Alonzo Coleman disagreed. Hubbard will stay in jail for at least a couple of weeks, until a grand jury considers his charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.

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