by CHRISTOPHER CLARK
Intern News Reporter

Reported acts of vandalism in Boone have risen this year over numbers from 2008, largely due to an increase in incidents of graffiti tagging on local businesses and properties.

According to the Boone Police Department, vandalism reports increased 59 percent for the month of October compared to 2008 reports and are up by a total of 39 percent in 2009 to date.

Boone Police Sergeant Bill Hartley Jr. said the rise in vandalism reports was due to the growing problem of illegal tagging in Boone.

“Graffiti is not only ugly, but it is defacing and damaging both private and public property,” Hartley said. “One person’s idea of art is not the owner of that properties’ vision of it.”

Hartley said tagging is responsible for the majority of vandalism reports in Boone and can be very expensive to fix, requiring painting or sanding to remove paint, depending on the surface vandalized.

Peacock

by EDWARD SZTUKOWSKI
News Editor

Appalachian State University’s Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock and Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Susan Pettyjohn are gearing up for a fundraising initiative focusing on five areas on campus.

“Every school, every college, every program needs external funding,” Peacock said. “That’s going to be our ticket to the future.”

Peacock said he met with consultants who asked him what he wanted on campus.

Obakunle Akinlana speaks at Appalachian State University's Kwanzaa Celebration last year. Photo by Rachel Noel

by JUSTIN HERBERGER
News Reporter

Appalachian State University’s Office for Multicultural Student Development will host a Kwanzaa Celebration tonight in the Blue Ridge Ballroom of Plemmons Student Union at 6 p.m.

The event will feature performances by Appalachian’s Gospel Choir, Lyric spoken word club and Otesha Creative Arts Ensemble from Winston-Salem.

“It should be a program that’s both educational and entertaining,” Graduate Assistant for the Multicultural Center Omar A. Crenshaw said.

JON LAFONTAINE
Associate Editor for Online Operations

Appalachian State University has a problem, which is this: most of the people living in Boone are unhappy for pretty much all of the time.

Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most were largely concerned with the placement of black and gold coloring on Thursdays, which was odd because on the whole, it wasn’t the black and gold coloring that was unhappy.

Many residents are increasingly under the opinion they’d made a big mistake coming to Boone in the first place, many even regretted coming to North Carolina, some the United States.