Wilmington, NC News

After having almost a dozen animals taken away from them for mistreatment, a Pender County couple now has five of their horses back.

“When all my horses are home, I’ll be very happy.”

That was the only comment from Laura Westbrock, as she and her husband loaded some of their horses into a trailer early Tuesday morning. The horses were taken away last month by humane society volunteers, who said the animals were malnourished.

A local vet and judge gave the couple the OK to take them back, after the owners were sentenced to unsupervised probation. The horses will be monitored for a year, but volunteers who have been caring for the horses are still worried.

“I know they are going to be monitored for a year, but after that year what is going to happen? A lot can happen after a year, they could end up in the same state they were in now,” said Scott’s Hill volunteer Lisa Watts.

A local vet just gave about half of the horses a clean bill of health to go back home. “It’s sad, me and the other volunteers have put in a lot of work. I hate to see them go,” said Watts.

The other 6 horses continue to be nursed back to health by volunteers at Scott’s Hill Stable.

My child will be a freshman at college in the fall. Any tips on helping him handle money?

College is more expensive than ever, so stretching out your dollars is important. According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, college tuition and fees have increased 3 times faster than household income over the last 25 years. For every dollar the average family made extra in income, the cost of college increased by three dollars. It’s no wonder borrowing for college has doubled during that 25 year time frame. The government may be making more and more money available through grants and loans, but I’m not sure it’ll be enough. Something must change to make college more affordable. Government money and loans aren’t the long term solutions.

But what about now? Remember one of my favorite sayings, ‘The decisions I make today determine the options I have tomorrow.’ Start by explaining to your child that decisions in life are cumulative. If they make consistently good financial decisions, then their quality of life will generally get better and better. The same is true for poor financial decisions. They also have a cumulative effect but with a negative result.

Consider this illustration. We all know sleep is important. I need about 7 hours to feel rested and be productive the following day. If I only sleep 3 hours tonight, I might make it through tomorrow. If I only sleep 3 hours for the next 7 days, I’d probably collapse. Short term, I can miss some sleep. Long term, I’m in trouble.

Think of money in the same way. I need to budget my money and live within my means, just like I need to budget my time and get enough hours of sleep. Start by teaching your children to live within their means. If they can learn that, they’re off to a good start.

If you have a financial question for Ross, you can use the Marino on Money page.

Joseph Moreno of Supply was driving his car home from a party in early May when he crashed. Two of the four West Brunswick High students in his car died.

Caleb Diaz and Jacob Mosely died after a fatal crash off Royal Oaks Road. Jospeh Moreno was driving the car, and at seventeen years old, he is facing two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

“We had been consulting with the District Attorney, and finishing up our reconstruction, with our reconstruction unit out of Fayetteville,” said First Sergeant Morris of the NC Highway Patrol.

According to Highway Patrol, Moreno and his passengers had just left a party at this house, just around the corner from the crash site.

Officials say alcohol was not a factor in Moreno’s case, but high speeds and inexperience behind the wheel contributed to the severity of the crash.

“When you have teenagers, and inexperienced drivers, it’s just a bad combination, you just can’t tell them enough, to drive careful, and drive the speed limit. I mean speed limits are posted for a reason,” Morris said.

WWAY visited Moreno at his home in Supply. He answered the front door with his father, neither would comment on the circumstances.

Sources tell WWAY that the kids left the party in a hurry, because there was rumor law enforcement was on the way.

According to District Attorney Rex Gore, the owners of the home where the kids left from are not being charged.

Moreno made his first appearance in court yesterday. If Moreno had been impaired while driving, his charges would have been closer to felony death by motor vehicle.

Area unemployment rates are the highest they’ve been in the last 15 years, but early rebounds in retail sales, real estate sales, and room occupancy tax collections are signs of strength for the local economy.

Experts predict a 3% decline in the national economy and a 1.6% drop in the state economy for 2009.

At a conference on the economy in southeastern North Carolina Tuesday economist Woody Hall predicted 1% growth by years end. “We’re not talking a growth rate in excess of 5%. We’re probably talking about growth rates that are sustainable over the next 10 to 15 years of maybe a max of 4%.

Before the economy can stabilize, Hall says local housing and retail markets must rebound from a downward trend. “Those are two of the big sectors that we must see some stabilizing in, that we must see some growth in, in order for the economy to turn around.”

Hall says the economy could begin to heat up along with the weather. “We tend to do better than we would possibly anticipate in the summer because we’re more of a drive in destination.”

Local residents are optimistic that destination could become more permanent, which would help the economy.

“All you have to do is look at the census bureau; the growth potential for North Carolina is pretty pronounced. Long term, I anticipate that our future is bright,” said Jeff Stader.

This is an idea national economists agree with. “We’re going to get in migration again and you need structures, so I think it’s going to be unavoidable that the construction sector is going to be important for the next decade or so,” said Tom Simpson.

But Hall says, before all that is possible, consumer confidence must rise. “I think a lot of it has to do with the willingness of the consumer to spend.”

Hall also predicted a 3% growth in the local economy for 2010, but he says unemployment rates will continue to rise until sometime after a recovery sets in.

Right now, it’s too early to predict when that will happen.