Bessie Small and her family had finished up a Sunday supper of soup, corn, green peas and fatback. Then she headed to bed between 11 o'clock and midnight. "I woke up in a turmoil," she said on Monday. The 74-year-old Small said law enforcement officers used excessive force while executing a search warrant at her home in Haymount. Fayetteville Police Chief Thomas Bergamine, reached at his home on Monday night, said: "We have received no complaint of officers using excessive force. However, if there's a report of officers using excessive force, we will fully investigate it." [continues 434 words]
McCAIN -- The berries were bright red and clustered on an American holly tree in front of the P.P. McCain Memorial Building. The white blossoms on the Bradford pear trees were already in full bloom on a cool mid-March day on the campus of the Sandhills Youth Center. Don't let the name of the place fool you: Though there's no chain-link fence topped with razor ribbon and the correctional officers are unarmed, this is a prison. A minimum-security prison for youths, for the most part, ages 18 to 21. [continues 1083 words]
SOUTHERN PINES -- William Dean started off his career as a stockbroker. Now he's buying and selling hemp products retail. The 28-year-old Dean, an upstart pro-hemp entrepreneur who was born and raised in Moore County, envisions an expansion of his budding hempire. One day he hopes to open stores in Fayetteville and Sanford and perhaps even beyond. For the time being, Dean and his wife, Gwen, own and operate Flowland Hemporium & Smoke Shop just off U.S. 1 at one end of a sun-bleached yellow aluminum siding strip mall on West Morganton Road. While there are other stores and flea market booths around that dabble in such specialty items, this business may be the only one in the Cape Fear region that's based around -- or as Dean put it, "dedicated to" -- hemp wear and other hemp-based merchandise. [continues 2265 words]
