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GREENVILLE

Philanthropist helps college students

Victor Orozco came to the United States from Colombia when he was young and couldn't speak a word of English.

That made his route to a college education a difficult one - but not nearly as difficult as it would have been were it not for a Furman University program called Bridges to a Brighter Future.

The program helps students "whose potential outdistances their circumstances" to make it through high school and get into college.

Once they're in college, about half of them drop out without earning a degree. An anonymous donor has taken steps to try to improve that statistic.

The donor has promised $3.4 million to add a new element called "Crossing the Bridge" that focuses on helping these students finish college, Furman announced Wednesday.

"I had a really hard freshman year," Orozco said, noting the help he got from the program's director who was overloaded with demands for her time. "If there had been another director or something of the sort, it would have definitely helped a lot."

COLUMBIA

Diabetes researcher, 96, dies

Diabetics who control their disease with pills instead of frequent insulin injections can thank Indiana Dr. William R. Kirtley, a pioneering diabetes researcher who died over the weekend on Hilton Head Island.

Kirtley had spent several months in failing heath before his death Sunday, said his daughter, Jane Kirtley. He was 96.

Kirtley was part of a team of researchers at Eli Lilly & Company in Indianapolis who made groundbreaking discoveries in the decades after World War II that helped turned a disease which before the 20th century almost always meant a painful, suffering death into a disorder that can be managed. "My dad was proud of his work and what it meant for the lives of people with diabetes," Jane Kirtley said Wednesday.

Dr. Kirtley directed the Lilly Laboratory for Clinical Research and was part of a team that developed pills that helped Type 2 diabetics

North Carolina

Raleigh

Body abandoned in hearse for 9 days

A foul smell in a small North Carolina town led police to a woman's body they say had been in the back of a hearse for nine days.

Police in Graham, about 60 miles west of Raleigh, are investigating how the body of 37-year-old Linda Walton was left unattended for so long.

The hearse is owned by David B. Lawson Mortuary, which now faces an investigation by the state agency that grants funeral licenses. Lawson declined to comment on the case Wednesday.

Police in Graham are still investigating, and haven't decided yet whether charges will be filed, said Capt. Steve McGilvray.

Criminal charges in the case are unlikely, said Alamance County District Attorney Pat Nadolski.

"I don't think there's a statute on the books for what happened," he said. "If there were, we would file charges."

NEWTON

Illness forces animal shelter to close

A North Carolina shelter will euthanize 200 animals in its care after the outbreak of a mysterious illness.

The Catawba County Animal Shelter in Newton will temporarily close starting Wednesday while the facility is sanitized.

County animal services manager Jay Blatche says the ailment is an upper respiratory virus. But testing at Cornell University and Oklahoma State University have failed to identify the illness.

The virus causes fever, vomiting and diarrhea, and has been difficult to treat.

Blatche says crowded conditions in the 25-year-old facility make such outbreaks a constant risk.

The shelter is scheduled to reopen on Sept. 7.

Until then, a temporary shelter is being built outdoors.

RALEIGH

Filing opens for N.C. Court of Appeals

Attorneys who want to run for the North Carolina Court of Appeals seat vacated this month by newly appointed federal Judge Jim Wynn have a week to sign up for the November ballot.

The State Board of Elections opened the candidate filing period Wednesday morning for the appeals court job and will close it next Tuesday afternoon.

At least two candidates previously said they plan to run. One of them is Cressie Thigpen.

He was appointed this week to fill Wynn's seat through the end of the year by Gov. Beverly Perdue.

Voters would rank candidates by preference if more than three people seek the job through a process called instant runoff voting.

It would be the first time instant runoff voting has been used statewide.

RALEIGH

Dorothea Dix Hospital prepares to close

North Carolina's first mental health hospital is transferring its patients and staff to other hospitals as it prepares to close at the end of the year.

The Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh will transfer all of its patients by the end of the year. The patients will be moved to hospitals in Butner and Goldsboro. Some of the staff will stay at Dorothea Dix to run a unit for patients in the criminal justice system, but most of the more than 800 staff members will transfer to the other hospitals.