| Blog and Media Roundup - Saturday, Feb 7, 2009; News Roundup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 7 2009, 06:07 AM (430 Views) | |
| abb | Feb 7 2009, 06:07 AM Post #1 |
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1090994.cfm Council, Bell advise against property tax hike By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun gronberg@heraldsun.com Feb 7, 2009 DURHAM -- A majority of the City Council on Friday backed Mayor Bill Bell in saying that administrators shouldn't even bother asking them to raise property taxes in connection with Durham's fiscal 2009-10 budget. But council members gave City Manager Tom Bonfield and his staff the latitude to suggest fee increases when budget deliberations open this spring. "Put them on the table, and we'll try to make a decision," Bell said after city administrators pressed him on the point during a Friday council retreat at Durham Technical Community College. Bonfield and Budget Director Bertha Johnson, meanwhile, both warned council members that it'll take a combination of program cuts and revenue increases to balance a budget that's $24 million to $40 million in the hole before work on it even starts. The manager said he wants administrators to think beyond the upcoming year's budget to fiscal 2010-11 and even fiscal 2011-12, as it's likely the recession will have long-lasting effects on local government. "Most experts are saying that no state has [yet] reached the bottom of the economic cycle," Bonfield said, adding that past recessions have crimped local-government budgets for up to two years after a broader economic recovery began. He stressed that program cuts of some sort or another are certain and said they should come sooner rather than later. "There's no way everything done in every department is a high priority," he said, adding that if officials think otherwise, they're "not being serious enough." He added that while departments have been asked to prepare for cuts of up to 10 percent, he prefers targeted cuts to across-the-board reductions that harm core services. When times are tough at home, "we don't just pay 10 percent less on the mortgage or electric bill," he said. "We prioritize." Johnson said departments have already suggested a variety of potential fee increases. Most of the ideas involve raising the bill for development reviews of different sorts, though there's also support in some quarters of the administration for moves like increasing parking rates and garbage transfer-station tip fees. Beyond advising Bonfield not to seek a property tax increase, council members weren't offering many suggestions. They're scheduled to hold a second retreat on Feb. 20, to hammer out what the manager characterized as a joint strategy for handling the budget. The estimated shortfall comes in part because administrators are still figuring that the council will go through the second phase of a two-year series of pay adjustments designed to bring staff salaries for city staff into line with those other area governments are offering. The bill for the second phase of adjustments is about $7.3 million, Johnson said, conceding later in response to a question from The Herald-Sun that the city isn't yet on the hook for those expenses. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the country's overall inflation rate had dropped to about 0.1 percent as of the end of December. |
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| abb | Feb 7 2009, 06:09 AM Post #2 |
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1090949.cfm Deficit doesn't include $1.1 million for recreation centers By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun gronberg@heraldsun.com Feb 7, 2009 DURHAM -- The scheduled openings of three new recreation centers would add at least $1.1 million to Durham's fiscal 2009-10 budget, money administrators haven't yet counted against a projected deficit of at least $24 million. Parks and Recreation Department officials intend to begin hiring staff and buying supplies for the planned Walltown Recreation Center in fiscal 2009-10, as they expect the facility to open for business in the spring of 2010, department Director Rhonda Parker said. The department also has to get ready for the opening of the Holton Career and Resource Center late this summer and the city's planned purchase of the Duke Diet & Fitness Center on West Trinity Avenue, Parker said. Estimates suggest that the advance preparations for the opening of the Walltown center off West Club Boulevard would cost $120,892 beyond what officials have already budgeted, she said during a Friday City Council retreat. The Holton center -- the ongoing conversion of the old Holton Middle School on North Driver Street into a combination trade school/community center/health clinic -- would add at least $559,248 to the fiscal 2009-10 budget. That figure actually understates the cost because the parks department, City Manager Tom Bonfield's office and the Durham Public Schools are still working out plans to hire a contractor to help manage the facility. The contractor will cost the city at least another $55,674 in fiscal 2009-10 and likely a bit more once security and other needs are taken into account, Parker said. Operating the Diet & Fitness Center, meanwhile, would cost about $414,931 in fiscal 2009-10, she said. City officials intend to buy the facility from Duke University for $2.6 million and spend another $600,000 on minor interior renovations. Money to complete the deal is already available thanks to decisions the City Council made two years ago. Parks officials said recently that while they're in position to pull the trigger on the Diet & Fitness purchase, the deal is on hold pending approval from Bonfield's office. Bonfield in turn has said he's assessing how the projects and especially their likely operating costs will fit into what's certain to be one and probably a series of austerity budgets. The Holton conversion is already under construction and is likely a deal the city has to go through with, given that it has received broad political support and involves commitments of long standing between the city, the school system, the county government and the Duke Health Care System. The Walltown project has been more controversial but appears to have solid support on the City Council. It's essentially replacing a small building residents of the Walltown neighborhood erected on their own during the segregation era. Construction is set to begin soon. The Diet & Fitness Center is practically in move-in condition but the city's interest in buying it surfaced first among administrators, who in turn sold the idea to the City Council. |
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| abb | Feb 7 2009, 06:12 AM Post #3 |
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1090848.cfm Torture added in Carson findings BY BETH VELLIQUETTE : The Herald-Sun bvelliquette@heraldsun.com Feb 7, 2009 CHAPEL HILL -- A federal grand jury has issued a new indictment for Demario James Atwater, who is accused of killing UNC student body president Eve Carson last year, stating that the jurors found that the homicide involved torture and serious physical abuse. The superseding indictment, issued Jan. 30, replaces the one issued in October. It adds an additional charge and lists eight special findings, which are the proposed requirements and aggravating circumstances necessary for the attorney general to obtain the death penalty in the case. Special finding "G" states: "The defendant, Demario James Atwater, committed the homicide offense in an especially heinous, cruel, and depraved manner in that it involved torture and serious physical abuse to the victim, Eve Marie Carson." Atwater, 22, and Laurence Lovette Jr., 18, are both accused of kidnapping and killing Carson on March 5, 2008, in Chapel Hill. The two men from Durham allegedly abducted Carson in or near her home off West Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill. They drove her to various ATMs and withdrew money from her bank account, according to authorities. They then allegedly shot and killed her, leaving her body in an intersection in a quiet residential neighborhood near the UNC campus. The autopsy report indicates she suffered six wounds from a shotgun and pistol. Two of the wounds, one to her hand and one to her face, were likely caused from one shotgun blast. Atwater was 21 at the time of Carson's death, but his co-defendant, Lovette, was only 17, making Lovette ineligible for the death penalty because of his age. Both the Orange County district attorney and the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina have stated their intentions to seek the death penalty against Atwater. The old federal indictment charged that Atwater committed a carjacking resulting in death, that he used firearms in the course of the carjacking, that he was a felon and illegally possessed firearms and that he used a shortened shotgun that was not registered to him. The superseding indictment adds an additional count, which states that Atwater abducted Carson and held her to "obtain property from her by threats and violence," and used instrumentalities of interstate and foreign commerce such as automobiles, public highways and roads, automated teller machines and cellular phones in committing the offense that resulted in her death. The new indictment also includes the eight special findings, which are the factors, according to the grand jury, that make Atwater eligible for the death penalty. It will be up to a jury at the time of trial to determine which special findings are true. They include that Atwater was 18 or older at the time of the offense, that he intentionally killed Carson, and that he inflicted serious bodily injury that resulted in her death. The findings also include that Atwater acted with premeditation, "contemplating that the life of a person would be taken and intending that lethal force would be used in connection with a person." Atwater also showed a reckless disregard for human life, the grand jury stated, and Carson's death occurred during the commission of a kidnapping. The eighth finding is that he committed the homicide for pecuniary gain. When asked about the allegations of torture and physical abuse, Lynne Klauer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of North Carolina, said the word torture is just part of the wording for that aggravating factor and doesn't necessarily mean Carson was tortured before she died. Klauer, however, is not the spokesperson for the grand jury and would not be able to say why the members of the jury believed Carson had been tortured before her death and why they included that special finding. While some may argue that all murders are especially heinous, atrocious and cruel, torture would mean that Atwater subjected Carson to extreme suffering beyond what is necessary to cause death. Louis Allen, the federal public defender for the Middle District of North Carolina, said he could not comment on the allegation of torture. "We're sort of constrained about what we can say," he said. |
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| abb | Feb 7 2009, 06:17 AM Post #4 |
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/hsletters/ Remember Eve This is an appropriate time to remember the brutal slaying of a talented, beautiful young woman who was murdered for no reason. Eve Carson was outstanding, intelligent and liked by all who knew her at UNC. The anniversary date of her murder is approaching and we shouldn't let people forget what happened that fateful day in March. I don't understand why these men haven't been tried and sentenced, unless it is such a high-profile case they are hoping people will forget in order to give them a so-called fair trial. I don't think they deserve a trial as their innocence is really not in question. This kind of behavior is intolerable, and sentencing should be speedy. Our judges, lawyers and law enforcement have to stop letting repeat offenders back into society. The senseless killing has to stop. No one is safe on our streets and not even in our homes anymore. Keep the fires burning for Eve Carson and others who met the same fate. Let's change our system to protect the public, not the criminals. BEVERLY MCDADE DAY Hillsborough February 7, 2009 |
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| abb | Feb 7 2009, 06:25 AM Post #5 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1396980.html Published: Feb 07, 2009 12:30 AM Modified: Feb 07, 2009 04:23 AM 'Bullet bill' off legislative list Jim Wise, Staff Writer Comment on this story DURHAM - The City Council is not putting the Rev. Melvin Whitley's "Bullet Ownership Bill" on its agenda for state legislators, but it is considering a simpler resolution with much the same intent. Along the lines of a suggestion from Mayor Bill Bell, the resolution calls for allowing the sale of ammunition only to "individuals qualified to purchase and possess handguns." Whitley's proposal would require a permit to buy ammunition and forbid the sale of handgun ammunition to convicted felons, mental patients and some other classes of people. He has unsuccessfully sought a legislative sponsor for two years. The ammunition resolution is one of several acts and resolutions under consideration for the city's legislative agenda. City Attorney Patrick Baker presented drafts of the legislative agenda to the council Thursday. The council will vote on its final package Feb. 16 and present the measures to state legislators from Durham on Feb. 23. Whether legislators try to advance the city's agenda is their decision. Among other items under consideration are: * An increase in the city vehicle-registration fee from $10 to $15. * A resolution supporting improvement in the state criminal probation system. |
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| abb | Feb 7 2009, 06:26 AM Post #6 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/columns/story/1396833.html Published: Feb 07, 2009 12:30 AM Modified: Feb 07, 2009 05:38 AM Motivated to get defendants to court Mark Cartret Comment on this story RALEIGH - It is clear that our state is in the midst of dealing with a probation system that is broken and in desperate need of fixing. People function in their day-to-day lives believing that those who should be behind bars are indeed behind bars, and not free, roaming the streets. Then we witness some heinous crime committed by an individual who, if monitored properly, would have been in jail and not free to commit more crimes. There is obviously cause for concern when it comes to the North Carolina probation system. However, as the president of the association that represents the bail bonding industry in this state, I am convinced that there needs to be equal or bigger concern when it comes to the use of taxpayer-funded pretrial release. This process, taxpayer-funded pretrial release, was created as a means of reducing jail overcrowding, not to ensure that defendants are returned to court for their hearings. Instead of focusing on ways to save taxpayer money and produce defendants for their court dates, North Carolina counties continue to rely on a system that releases defendants with the hope that already strained and overworked law enforcement personnel will be able to monitor these individuals. l l l WHAT WE'RE LEFT WITH IS A FAILED SYSTEM where defendants simply choose not to show up for their court dates, and law enforcement officers aren't able to spend the time locating them. According to a 2007 nationwide study produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the percentage of the defendants who were fugitives after one year ranged from 10 percent for unsecured bond releases to 3 percent of those released on surety bonds. We are releasing defendants from jail to be monitored through an outdated, strained government-run program. The citizens deserve better. On the flip side, the private bail industry is a time-tested part of the judicial process that reduces jail overcrowding and also ensures defendants are returned to court. The bail agents of our state work daily to "produce" defendants. In fact, the low estimates suggest that North Carolina taxpayers enjoy $2 billion per year in savings as a result of bail agents working to produce defendants. This is an actual savings to all taxpayers that our members are proud to provide. The use of private bail strengthens the overall justice system by empowering bail agents to monitor defendants and produce them for court. Unlike in a pretrial release program, bail agents are financially tied to the bonds they issue and have a personal motivation for monitoring those defendants and ensuring they return to court. l l l WE AS BAIL AGENTS ARE MOTIVATED TO GET DEFENDANTS TO COURT so we do not forfeit on the bond. If forfeiture occurs, our state's constitution requires the money go to the public school system. It is time that the safety of our communities becomes the No. 1 focus, not how quickly the jail population can be reduced. We all recognize that we are dealing with overcrowded jails, but we must also make it a priority that those charged with crimes attend their day in court and answer to the charges against them. Without a proven system such as private bail, we are left simply hoping defendants will show. If they're not tracked down, we're then left hoping that another crime is not committed while this person is unaccounted for. We've seen the media coverage and witnessed the awful things that can happen when unsupervised defendants are out on probation. Let's not continue down that path as it relates to producing defendants for court. Let's act now and demand accountability in the program we use. Let's put the safety of our communities and the rights of taxpayers first. (Mark Cartret is president of the N.C. Bail Agents Association.) |
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| abb | Feb 7 2009, 06:42 AM Post #7 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/978/story/1397024.html Published: Feb 07, 2009 12:30 AM Modified: Feb 07, 2009 01:04 AM Cline is city's first female and first black district attorney. New DA Cline tries to cut case backlog At issue is the right to a speedy trial Anne Blythe, Staff Writer Comment on this story Tracey Cline, who made local history last month when she was sworn in as Durham's first female and first black district attorney, hopes to change another course of history during her early weeks in office. The state Court of Appeals rebuked the District Attorney's office in a September ruling when a three-judge panel found that a man sentenced to more than 60 years in prison on charges of burglary, robbery, kidnapping and attempted sexual assault had been robbed of his right to a speedy trial. Since then, Cline has been working with Orlando Hudson, the chief resident superior court judge, defense lawyers and others to identify lingering cases so they can be scheduled for trial. "What we've done is focus on people in custody first," Cline said in an interview shortly after becoming the district attorney. The case that has the lawyers and judge keeping an eye on jail custody lists is Frankie Delano Washington's. Washington, 48, was an auto mechanic who waited four years and nine months to go to trial on accusations that he invaded a Trinity Park home, not far from Duke's East Campus, and traumatized two adults and two children inside. The home invasion occurred in May 2002. The trial was in February 2007. Washington was in jail, awaiting trial for 366 days, before bail was reduced to $37,500 and he was able to post it. The Court of Appeals tossed out the charges against Washington in September. On the fifth floor of the Durham County courthouse, there was evidence this past week of the renewed effort to whittle down the backlog of cases, particularly the more violent charges. On Tuesday, a jury quickly rendered a guilty verdict in the first-degree murder case against Mario Fortune, one of four men accused in a 2004 gang-related killing of Reginald D. Johnson. In a courtroom just down the hall, expert witnesses testified in the retrial of Timothy Uzzelle, the man accused of killing Ahmed Raja in a convenience store robbery caught on videotape in May 2005. Hudson, the judge who presided over the Fortune trial, said there are many variables to consider when looking at how quickly cases move through the justice system. Fortune was in jail, awaiting trial, for four years. But Hudson said when more than one suspect is charged in a homicide, as often happens in Durham, it can take years to resolve all the cases. Prosecutors like to try the suspects in a specific order to get information from one that can bolster their case against another. Defense lawyers, too, can delay trials with requests for information that might help their clients at trial. As the legal maneuvering goes on, judges have to weigh bail requests with worries in Durham about some murder suspects who have been released from jail and charged with additional violent crimes while awaiting trial on the earlier charges. "We don't want anybody sitting over there in jail for more than a year if we can help it," Hudson said. "But there are some cases when that's going to happen." anne.blythe@newsobserver.com or 932-8741 |
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| abb | Feb 7 2009, 07:43 AM Post #8 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1396977.html Published: Feb 07, 2009 12:30 AM Modified: Feb 07, 2009 01:04 AM Suspects in killing make bail The Charlotte Observer Comment on this story The second of two suspects in the killing of UNC-Charlotte student Irina "Ira" Yarmolenko of Chapel Hill was released from the Gaston County jail Friday after posting $100,000 bail. Mark Bradley Carver, 40, of Gastonia will be placed under house arrest with electronic monitoring. Carver's cousin, Neal Leon Cassada Jr., 54, of Mount Holly was released Thursday after posting $100,000 bail. Both men were charged with first-degree murder in the May 5 death of Yarmolenko, who was found beside her car on the banks of the Catawba River in Mount Holly. Following a bail hearing Monday, a judge reduced the men's bail from $1 million to $100,000 each. |
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| Quasimodo | Feb 7 2009, 08:09 AM Post #9 |
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No sympathy. This state had plenty of time and resources (hundreds or even thousands of hours) to research 46 members of the lacrosse team, dig up old warrants on witnesses and a chief's daughter, arrest various persons related to the case, try them, rush DNA testing ahead of other cases, and pursue a case in which the defendants had already been proven innocent by scientific testing before they were even charged. (How might all of this time and all of those resources been better spent?) And nobody--not Judges Stephens, Titus, Bushfan, Smith, Whichard, Hudson, etc.--cared. |
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| Bill Anderson | Feb 7 2009, 08:32 AM Post #10 |
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That is exactly right. They had no resources to keep Lovette and Atwater under wraps because they were busy pursuing a case that every one of them knew was a lie. There is no other way around it. But no one learns any lessons. The student body president of UNC-Chapel Hill is tortured and murdered, and it is another day at the office. A couple of clueless kids spray paint something on the wall and someone else allegedly makes a little noose of toilet paper, and the whole UNC system swings into action. So, at least we know where the real priorities are in the UNC system.
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| abb | Feb 7 2009, 10:42 AM Post #11 |
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Bill, Just got back from our local Friends of the Library book sale and picked up these two: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Shall-Rise-Murder-Lynching/dp/0679764232/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234021025&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Contempt-Court-Turn-Century-Federalism/dp/0385720823/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234020975&sr=8-1 Should be timely reading. |
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| Kerri P. | Feb 7 2009, 04:45 PM Post #12 |
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http://www.wralsportsfan.com/duke/story/4492061/ Duke drops Miami in OT, 78-75 Updated 37 minutes ago Jon Scheyer scored 22 points and No. 4 Duke beat Miami 78-75 in overtime Saturday afternoon in a classic back-and-forth ACC battle Gerald Henderson added 19 points, Greg Paulus scored a season-high 18 and Kyle Singler had 17 for the Blue Devils (20-3, 7-2 ACC), who came back from a 16-point second-half deficit. Duke scored the first six points of overtime and never trailed in the extra period. Duke was coming off its second-worst loss of the 29-year Mike Krzyzewski era, 74-47 loss at Clemson on Wednesday. Only UNLV's 103-73 win over Duke in the 1990 national title game was more lopsided. snip... |
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| Kerri P. | Feb 7 2009, 04:47 PM Post #13 |
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http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/4488863/ Teen charged in stolen car chase in jail Posted: Feb. 6 8:38 p.m. Updated: Today at 7:02 a.m. Garner, N.C. — A 16-year-old girl involved in a high-speed chase on Interstate 40 Monday morning has gone from the hospital to jail. Alisa Welty, of Clayton, and the 14-year-old driver were each charged with felony possession of a stolen vehicle. The 14-year-old, whose name was not released due to her age, was also charged with driving without a license, reckless driving, going 100 in a 65-mph zone and felony attempt to elude arrest. Welty remained at Wake County Jail Friday night under an $18,000 bond. Her first court date was set for Feb. 9. Welty and the 14-year-old met Monday while staying at a den mother's house in Johnston County, troopers said. One of the girls quickly stole the keys to the woman's gold Toyota Corolla, and both took off in it, troopers said. The car was traveling at about 100 mph on the exit ramp from eastbound I-40 onto U.S. 70 when the driver lost control, and the car went over a guard rail and into some trees, authorities said. Both teens suffered wounds serious enough for them to be taken to WakeMed's trauma unit, troopers said. |
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