Birdie : By Vito Gironda, the personable and enterprising owner of the popular Vito's Ristorante in Southern Pines, for setting up a fund to help those affected by a devastating earthquake last month in his native land of Italy. Though Vito has won a wealth of friends here over the past 30 years through his friendly demeanor and great food, he retains a warm spot in his heart for his homeland, where his mother still lives. Next time you visit the ristorante, put some money in the special jar there. Vito will match it.

Bogey: By U.S. immigration officials, who wrongly deported a North Carolina prisoner named Mark Lyttle on the assumption that he was a Mexican. Lyttle, who spent four months bouncing around Latin American prisons and homeless shelters, is a U.S. citizen born in Rowan County. He speaks no Spanish and has an Anglo-sounding name. How can something like this happen?