DATE: Saturday, March 22, 1997              TAG: 9703220429

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

                                            LENGTH:   46 lines

N. CAROLINA

RALEIGH

State could benefit

from settlements

in tobacco suits

Despite its tobacco-friendly laws, the state of North Carolina could benefit from a future settlement if other cigarette makers follow the lead of Liggett Group and settle state lawsuits.

Liggett announced Thursday that it would settle lawsuits brought by 22 states seeking to recover costs for care of health problems caused by tobacco. The 22 states will divide 25 percent of pretax profits over the next 25 years from Liggett, which has just 2 percent of the U.S. cigarette market. The settlement prompted legal and business experts to speculate that a larger deal with all tobacco firms could be reached in the future. If that happens, North Carolina could cash in if a settlement involved all 50 states, said John McArthur, chief counsel to state Attorney General Mike Easley. ``It would be a global settlement, affecting every state,'' McArthur said. ``North Carolina won't lose out.''

ASHEVILLE

Museum celebrates legacy

of Black Mountain college

At the height of the Depression, a disaffected band of teachers and students took refuge in the North Carolina mountains and opened a college with one rule - be intelligent.

That rule at Black Mountain College proved enough to guide minds that went on to become some of the most creative of the last half of the 20th century.

Choreographer Merce Cunningham, film director Arthur Penn, contemporary artists Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg were there, as were avant-garde composer John Cage and poet Robert Creeley. They either taught or took classes during the school's 23-year run.

The college closed because of financial problems in 1956, but the memories of those days may be preserved with a Black Mountain College Museum & Art Center. For the past five years, Mary Holden of Black Mountain has worked from the back of an Asheville art gallery trying to drum up support.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu