FORT MILL, S.C. - Karla Newman took the news that her twin boys, William and David, were autistic like any normal mother. "I went upstairs and cried for two days," she says.

Her husband, Tim, did what he does.

"I don't get depressed about anything," says Newman, the detail-driven, high-energy president of Charlotte Center City Partners. "I get mad."

Then, they took action.

Saturday, the Newmans are co-chairing the 9:30 a.m. walk at Lowe's Motor Speedway for the National Alliance for Autism Research. There's no known cause for autism -- a brain disorder that traps people in their own worlds -- much less a cure.

Karla has thrown herself into the walk. "I wanted to do this so other families would not have to go through this," she says.

The Newmans met in a Laundromat in Greenwich Village in 1988.

A Morehead Scholar at North Carolina, Tim was working at a New York investment bank. Karla was a bond analyst there. They married and moved to Winston-Salem a few years later, after a daughter, Rebecca, now 9, was born. The twins came in 1996. In 1999, minor-league baseball owner Don Beaver found Tim and moved him to Charlotte.

That's when the Newmans learned their boys were autistic. It's a mild case but still hits hard. The family has spent $125,000 on drugs, alternative treatments and tutors since the boys were diagnosed.

Medicaid has helped with expenses, but the Newmans cut back. Tim's mom lives a block away in Fort Mill to help, as Karla puts it, "with life." And yes, the twins have improved.

"Would they have gotten better anyway?" Karla says. "Or have they gotten better because we killed ourselves?"

The Newmans are upset government hasn't provided more help to find a cause for a disease that strikes one in 250 people. They are angry that some school districts don't help families enough.

On Tuesday, three tutors came to the Newmans' modest four-bedroom house. Also, two teen boys are hired to rough-house with the twins to coax them out of their introversion.

"They would rather sit and read a book than interact with other kids," Tim says.

Autistic kids can act out, disrupting classes. Most with the disorder can't care for themselves, much less hold a job. "My goal in life," Karla says, "is to be an empty-nester."

Until then, the Newmans sacrifice. Instead of living uptown, where Tim is CEO/head cheerleader, they have stayed in Fort Mill to keep the twins' life stable. The boys are in kindergarten, and one is almost ready for normal classes. "A miracle," Tim says.

Autism has changed the go-go Gotham couple. An eternal optimist, Tim has quit making annual goals, plotting his next career move. "That Type A stuff," he says, "is gone. Now it's one day at a time."

Karla? Now, she's mad.

She's convinced a cure is there, if government and some politicians would open their hearts and their wallets.

Don Hudson