Across the southeast

KKK protests outside Methodist meeting

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. - About a dozen members of the Ku Klux Klan began protesting Saturday outside a meeting of United Methodists who want gays welcomed in all aspects of church life.

The protesters, dressed in black and wearing black berets, are based in Georgia and came from a handful of Southeastern states. They carried signs reading "Show me where sin is OK," and "God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve."

About five counter-protesters from Knoxville, Tenn., who were across the street from the KKK, were asked to leave by police because they were not in a designated protest area near a command center run by the Haywood County Sheriff's Department.

The meeting about 25 miles west of Asheville, which attracted more than 500 people, opened officially Friday without incident.

Denominational law prohibits "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from serving in the clergy, a prohibition passed by the Methodist General Conference in 1984.

School says students 'fixed' friends' grades

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Three teenagers face felony charges after being accused of hacking into their school computer system to "fix" grades - not for themselves, but for friends.

The 16-year-olds are enrolled in advanced computer classes at Bay High School, and sheriff's Investigator Paul Vecker said they didn't need to change their own grades.

"These are three young men who are quite intelligent," he said.

Investigator Vecker said they mostly changed friends' grades by small increments to avoid notice. However, they allegedly made a big change for one junior, who reportedly would have failed if her grade hadn't been changed from an F to a B, investigators said.

The school contacted the Bay County sheriff's office.

One of the teens is charged with offense against intellectual property and the other two face charges of being principal to offense against intellectual property.

Patrons celebrate drive-in's reopening

DURHAM, N.C. - A year after the big screen at the old Starlite Drive-In burned to the ground, cars and trucks lined up Saturday as the last pink clouds faded in the west and the sky drew dark.

"Tonight is going to be like a big reunion," said owner Bob Groves, his eyes misty as he strung 35 mm film through the ancient projector, his nimble fingers getting reacquainted with the work.

The movie was The Dukes of Hazzard, not that it much mattered to the sell-out crowd. They came, young and old, to reclaim a lost experience.

Hundreds of tearful patrons drove by last August to survey the smoldering remains of the Triangle's last outdoor movie theater. The vintage red, green and blue neon sign that ran across the back of the screen had been a Durham landmark for more than six decades.

Mr. Groves, 53, initially had said he would reopen within 60 days, but the screen was uninsured. He had trouble persuading bankers to take a chance on a fading form of entertainment.

There were more than 4,000 drive-ins in the United States at their peak in 1958. Now there are fewer than 500, a number that shrinks each year as city lights swallow suburbs and land values rise.