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Blog and Media Roundup - Saturday, Feb 21, 2009; News Roundup
Topic Started: Feb 21 2009, 07:31 AM (587 Views)
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1102813.cfm

City Council supportive of most of budget strategy
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Feb 21, 2009

DURHAM -- City Council members on Friday endorsed City Manager Tom Bonfield's strategy for handling the fiscal 2009-10 budget, but cautioned they're unlikely to support raising fares on Durham's bus system or slashing neighborhood-development programs.

The manager's plan assumes compliance with the council's earlier request that the city hold the line on property taxes. Members are open to considering fee increases, though.

Raising Durham Area Transit Authority fares was one possibility Bonfield listed in "budget development guidelines" he distributed to council members earlier in the week.

Council members agreed that administrators should feel free to show revenue projections linked to a fare increase, but said any such proposal likely won't fly.

"I am generally opposed to increases in fees that impact the working poor," said Councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden, the council's liaison to the DATA Board of Trustees.

Two other council members, Diane Catotti and Mike Woodard, also said they'd be reluctant to raise fares, despite the system's operating deficit.

"In general, I prefer that we move to a fare-free system,' Catotti said. "I'm not sure raising fares now is going to get us enough money."

Woodard was the first of several council members to question a statement in the guidelines that said officials shouldn't establish a special neighborhood revitalization fund at this time.

The council last year set aside $500,000 to subsidize new businesses that want to set up shop in blighted areas.

The council already has approved one such project, and several others that would consume the remainder of the allocation are in the pipeline, said Kevin Dick, interim director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

Woodard noted that officials for several years have agreed the city's economic-development program should shift focus from downtown to neighborhoods. He quoted passages supporting that change from Mayor Bill Bell's three most recent state of the city addresses.

"A neighborhood revitalization fund is important, even at some minimal level," Woodard said. "We need funding in this, to be nimble when opportunities come, the way we have in downtown."

Catotti and Councilman Howard Clement agreed.

On a broader front, council members indicated support for considering program cuts to balance a fiscal 2009-10 budget that could be $24.4 million to $40.8 million out of balance without cuts or major tax and fee increases.

The deficit estimates assume the city goes through with plans to give employees an assortment of pay increases that would consume anywhere from $9.1 million to $10.3 million.

Bonfield's budget strategy assumes he or the council might cut that, but Woodard said Friday he wouldn't want to consider that unless the officials first "exhaust other possibilities."

Bonfield signaled later he's not particularly keen to go there either, even though inflation is running near zero and many economists have warned prices and wages could actually start dropping.

"It wasn't taken off the table," he said. "But the reality is that at some point, with the employees left to do the job, it's part of a healthy workplace environment."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/business/economy/21harvard.html?ref=business

February 21, 2009
Endowment Director Is on Harvard’s Hot Seat
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT

Harvard may be the nation’s wealthiest university, but it is short on cash.

The school relies on its endowment to generate a third of the money for its operations, and the endowment is on the verge of posting its biggest loss in 40 years. With much of its money tied up for the long term, it is scrambling to meet some obligations.

Harvard has frozen salaries for faculty and nonunion staff members, and offered early retirement to 1,600 employees. The divinity school has warned it may not be able to cover tuition for all its students with need, the school of arts and sciences is cutting its billion-dollar budget roughly 10 percent, and the university president said this week than the unprecedented drop in the endowment was causing it to delay its planned expansion, starting with a $1 billion science center, into the Allston neighborhood of Boston.

The school has even added to its debt by issuing $1.5 billion in new bonds, its largest such offering ever.

Turning the ship around turns heavily on Jane Mendillo, who took over the Harvard endowment on July 1 — which in hindsight looks like the worst possible moment to step into a job once held by some legendary investors. The endowment, the largest of any university in the nation, has shrunk by at least $8 billion, to $29 billion, since she arrived.

Undoubtedly, Ms. Mendillo inherited a complex portfolio, with many investments involving leveraged bets on equities and commodities that are difficult to unwind. Within days of her arrival, oil prices peaked and, with other commodities, began a precipitous fall. Stock prices commenced a sharp decline. Then came the cash calls on her portfolio.

In an interview, she recalled the Sunday in September when she learned Lehman Brothers would file for bankruptcy — a night she was celebrating her 50th birthday — as the beginning of her 12-hour workdays. “Clearly, that was a big turning point,” she said, adding that her longer-term strategic goals were overrun by urgent needs, like raising cash.

“There were some things that I knew were going to happen and be challenges,” said Ms. Mendillo, who speaks softly, choosing her words carefully. “There were others that I don’t think anybody could have foreseen.”

One she might not have anticipated was the intense pressure caused by the Allston expansion, according to one person with knowledge of the endowment. Several years ago, the university had envisioned an ambitious capital expansion program stretching for more than a decade. Lawrence H. Summers, then Harvard’s president, had raised the possibility of locking in interest rates that appeared to be at historic lows, a plan the university adopted, said several people familiar with the endowment.

All went well at first. But in the second half of last year, interest rates plummeted, and Harvard turned to the endowment to meet hefty collateral calls, which could rise to $1 billion if rates remain weak, according to a person with knowledge of the university. According to a statement Friday from James R. Rothenberg, treasurer of the university, Harvard has taken a series of steps to reduce the risk associated with the transaction.

The endowment was squeezed partly because it had invested more than its assets, a leveraging strategy that can magnify results, both good and bad. It also had invested heavily in private equity and related deals, which not only lock up existing cash but require investors to put up more capital over time.

To free up cash, Ms. Mendillo has had to make some unpleasant choices, selling $1 billion in equities, including some in hedge funds with outstanding performances. A source familiar with the endowment identified Convexity Capital, run by one of her predecessors, Jack Meyer, as well as Baupost Group, led by Seth Klarman. Neither would comment for this article. Though she would not confirm relationships with specific managers, Ms. Mendillo said, “We have taken money from a lot of funds as the size of the portfolio has changed.”

She also sought to sell some of the endowment’s large private equity positions, to little avail.

Harvard, like other universities, has pushed into alternative investments, including private equity, which now constitute 13 percent of its total assets. In good times these investments return money as deals are completed. Now the returns have dried up, yet the commitments for new money remain, causing perhaps her greatest headache.

“The university needs cash, and we have investments that need capital,” Ms. Mendillo said.

She has raised the equivalent of 3 percent of assets for a cash reserve. “For a long time, Harvard had a negative 5 position,” she said. “That means that 105 percent of the assets are invested at most times.”

Her critics say that Ms. Mendillo’s overall investment strategy is unclear and that while the crisis erupted faster and with more magnitude than could have been predicted, she could have moved more quickly to manage the risk. Supporters counter that her predecessors essentially left her hamstrung with a portfolio that was illiquid, and give her high marks on investing acumen.

“She does not beat you over the head with her knowledge, although it is clear that it is there,” said Andrew K. Golden, who oversees the endowment at Princeton.

Harvard has said its overall endowment portfolio declined 22 percent from July through October and that it could end the fiscal year in June down 30 percent. That performance is in line with the average for university endowments, though some have done better. Yale’s endowment was off 13.4 percent in the comparable four-month period, while Princeton’s was down 11 percent, and both have projected a total 25 percent drop for the fiscal year.

Like Harvard, many schools are responding by taking on more debt. Princeton sold $1 billion in bonds recently, its first taxable offering since 1994.

Before landing on the hot seat, Ms. Mendillo ran the much smaller endowment of Wellesley College. But she honed her investing style earlier at Harvard. After graduating from Yale and its school of management, she was an equity analyst and a consultant. David Swensen, a friend who manages Yale’s fund, advised her to work for Mr. Meyer if she wanted to learn portfolio management. She started covering steel and insurance industries, because “that was what was left over” and stayed 15 years.

Mr. Meyer racked up a stellar record running the endowment, putting Harvard’s returns second only to Yale’s. But complaints about the size of managers’ pay packages, relative to the academics’ pay, ultimately prompted Mr. Meyer and many of his acolytes to leave in 2005.

A period of relative instability ensued. Harvard hired Mohamed El-Erian, who stayed just two years before returning to a top post with Pacific Investment Management Company. Before and after Mr. El-Erian’s stint, the endowment relied on board members as interim managers.

Though the Harvard endowment posted a strong 8.6 percent gain in the year before Ms. Mendillo arrived, David A. Salem, who heads the Investment Fund for Foundations, says he believes that Mr. El-Erian did the school a disservice by hiring people to implement certain strategies and then “jumping ship.”

Mr. El-Erian declined to comment for this article.

Mr. Salem, who knows Ms. Mendillo from the board of the investment fund, also said that Mr. El-Erian appeared to have left Harvard with an extremely illiquid portfolio, a situation complicated when a permanent replacement was not named for seven months after his departure.

According to two people familiar with Harvard’s strategy, the endowment had entered into swap agreements under which it paid short-term interest rates and received the returns on stock and commodities indexes. Those indexes declined sharply in the third quarter last year, and Harvard had to come up with collateral just as it was forced to meet other cash needs.

Though she has let go about 25 percent of her staff, or roughly 50 people, as the portfolio shrinks, Ms. Mendillo seems intent on keeping 30 percent of the assets under internal management.

She is also trying to manage expectations.

“I am preparing the Harvard portfolio for the next one to three years for returns that will not be as attractive as what we expected on average,” she said.
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1102815.cfm

Budget request will not add paving funds
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Feb 21, 2009

DURHAM -- City Manager Tom Bonfield says he won't ask for any more street-paving money when he turns in his fiscal 2009-10 budget request later this spring.

For now, the Public Works Department will have to concentrate on executing a $3.8 million paving contract that the City Council approved in January, he said.

Bonfield said that effort, which is using the remaining proceeds of a $20 million paving bond voters approved in 2007, should carry the city's paving program for about 18 months.

If it delivers as expected, it's possible voters and the council would be more willing next year to support a tax increase to pay for a regular, cash-paid paving campaign, he said.

"To me, if there was any area I would have been comfortable recommending a tax increase [for this coming fiscal year], it would have been for a dedicated street resurfacing program," Bonfield said Friday after the council finished its second of two scheduled budget retreats.

But given the recession and "the reality of a tax increase in an election year," now isn't the time to ask the council for a big cash allocation for paving, he said.

Durham's paving program by all accounts, including Bonfield's, hasn't met the city's needs because it has operated on a boom and bust cycle.

Peak funding is tied to bond issues like the 2007 referendum, plus the occasional cash infusion ordered by the council. But the effort always drops off in the years between, no matter how fast private-sector development adds more mileage to the city's road network.

The result is that while as of 1990-2000 Durham was spending $10,702 per mile of road on paving, it's now spending only $8,907 per mile.

Public Works Director Katie Kalb and her staff estimate that to be sure of repaving every city street at least once in 20 years, as engineers prefer, the council would have to approve more than $5 million each year.

Kalb and other officials had hoped that the fiscal 2009-10 budget would give them a chance to set up a special reserve to fund such a program. The idea would be to earmark a set percentage of property tax revenue for it every year.

But the recession, falling sales-tax revenues and the possibility of a deficit of between $24.4 million and $40.8 million have combined to put an end to that idea, for fiscal 2009-10 at least.

Bonfield told council members of his intentions Friday and heard no complaints.

To the contrary, Councilman Eugene Brown said the deficit could turn out being even worse than officials now anticipate.

"Even in the last two weeks, the worldwide economy has worsened," he said. "The scale of our response has to match the economic reality and the challenge that we face."

Bonfield -- who on his first day as manager last August said the city's streets were in "terrible shape" -- signaled that he does think a more aggressive paving program is a worthwhile investment.

"If there's one thing I've heard in six months, consistently from all segments and all corners and all levels of the community," he said "it's that the streets are lousy and we need to do something about it."
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1102812.cfm

Bell addressed by Obama on stimulus
By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Feb 21, 2009

DURHAM -- Mayor Bill Bell was among a reported 85 municipal leaders from around the country who traveled to Washington late this week for talks with President Obama and other administration figures on the federal economic stimulus package.

Obama used a public session with the mayors in the East Room of the White House on Friday to stress that local governments will be held accountable for their use of the money.

In a subsequent question-and-answer session with the group, the president also stressed that the $789 billion bill's spending allotments are one-time money, Bell said.

Obama warned, in essence, that "whatever we do, we need to understand that when they run out, there aren't going to be any more," Bell said.

Cities that receive stimulus money "need to budget with that in mind," Bell added.

The call to Washington took Bell away from a Thursday City Council work session and a Friday morning council budget retreat.

But council members agreed that, given the importance of the stimulus package to recession-ravaged local and state budgets, the Washington trip merited priority.

"Bring back money," Councilwoman Diane Catotti told the mayor Thursday afternoon as he left the council work session to catch a plane to the capital.

The trip came amid continuing uncertainty about how much of the stimulus package might flow to this city. N.C. Gov. Beverly Perdue's office has estimated North Carolina as a whole can expect about $6.1 billion to underwrite a variety of initiatives.

City administrators started Friday's retreat by briefing council members on what they know about the package. Most of that amounted to bare-bones details about allocations to various programs.

Even among analysts in Washington, the governor's office and the N.C. League of Municipalities, there are "more questions than answers at this point," said Karmisha Wallace, assistant to the city manager.

Wallace's comment echoed a point made earlier in the week during a media briefing by analysts from the National Conference of State Legislators.

The bill "is one of the most complex, biggest, hugest, complicating and confusing pieces of legislation that's ever been passed," said Carl Tubbesing, the group's deputy executive director. "It's really in many ways a series of pieces of legislation."

Bell said he tried to relay questions from a variety of local organizations, including the Durham Public Schools.

He said he received assurances from Obama administration officials that the bill's wording on aid to education will allow the school system to offset at least some potential losses of state revenue.

Discussions with them also highlighted the availability of money in the package to pay for the hiring of more police officers and to expand summer jobs programs for youths, Bell said.

A number of the mayors gathered Thursday night for a dinner meeting to discuss the issue. Before meeting with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Friday, they also talked with Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, Bell said.
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/state/6-1101745.cfm

Video poker ruling renews lingering NC debate
By MIKE BAKER : Associated Press Writers
The Associated Press
Feb 20, 2009

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's brief foray into video poker brought on charges of corruption and influence-peddling, years of acrid debate and culminated in machines being banned and a sheriff landing in prison.

Now, after many thought the gambling issue had finally faded away, it's emerging again amid legal uncertainty.

A judge's decision this week to strike down North Carolina's ban on video poker machines has rekindled the debate over awkward gaming laws and resurrected memories of the state's exhausting fight over gambling.

It's a case being watched around the country as others try to figure out how to manage agreements between sovereign states and tribal lands -- all under the umbrella of an inconclusive federal law. In North Carolina, lawmakers are laying low until the issue moves through the courts.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning determined that the video poker ban violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act by prohibiting video poker machines in much of the state while allowing the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to operate the same games.

Manning issued a stay of his own ruling Thursday, meaning it won't take effect immediately, to give the state time to file an expected appeal. A spokeswoman for North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said the office planned to appeal.

If the decision is upheld, it could be used as precedent and pose a challege in states where gambling is allowed on tribal lands but limited elsewhere in the state.

"It'll be interesting to watch," said Tony Cabot, a Las Vegas-based gaming attorney who isn't involved in the North Carolina case. "If it is sustained on appeal, it could have very broad implications across the United States. It effectively changes the dynamics of gaming in the entire United States. States would effectively have to either permit it for everyone or prohibit it for everyone."

North Carolina legalized video poker machines in 1993, but then rushed to restrict them in what became a years-long debate. It also promted criminal investigations, including one that landed former Buncombe County Sheriff Bobby Medford in prison for 15 years for taking up to $300,000 in bribes to protect illegal gambling while he was sheriff.

Mike Tadych, an attorney involved in the lawsuit trying to overturn North Carolina's video poker ban, said the ruling could force the state to revisit its agreement with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The tribe began offering video poker machines in the mid-1990s after it negotiated a gambling agreement with then-Gov. Jim Hunt.

Its casino is a lucrative business for an economically depressed region in the western corner of the state.

"I don't think anyone has an objective of banning video poker statewide" along with Eastern Band gaming, Tadych said. "You've got to wonder, on the flip side, given the state's economic woes that the Legislature may decide, 'Well, if we can't make it go away, we may want to derive as much revenue from it as possible in order to support the budget.'"

But David Stewart, an expert on gambling regulations and an attorney with a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, questioned whether the ruling would stand. He said the North Carolina decision was unusual in its interpretation of federal law in an area that has been litigated before.

"I would expect on appeal that there would be a challenge to he court's ability to grant this relief," Stewart said. "There does seem to be a violation of the Indian gaming statue, but that the solution is not obviously to allow gaming everywhere else but to rather not allow the tribes to do what nobody else can do."

Stewart pointed to Florida, where the state Supreme Court struck down a compact last year with the Seminole Indian tribe and ruled the governor didn't have the right to enter into the agreement on his own. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum later asked the federal government, which handles cases that involve American Indian lands, to prosecute the tribe over its blackjack operations.

The tribe asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas-style slot machines and card games at the tribe's casinos continue operating.

John Rustin, a lobbyist for the conservative North Carolina Family Policy Council, said the exception for Cherokee gaming was part of a series of attempts to outlaw video poker dating to at least 2001. That is when the drive to ban or restrict video poker built after South Carolina imposed a statewide ban and the machines moved north.

"We understand and clearly the majority of members of the Legislature have understood for years the detrimental effects video gambling have on the citizens of North Carolina," Rustin said.
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http://www.johnincarolina.com/

Friday, February 20, 2009
Court Upholds Sexual Harassment Verdict Against Duke

Raleigh attorney Brent Adams has posted the following at InjuryBoard.com. All emphases in Adams’ post are mine. I offer a few comments below the star line.

Adams begins - - -

The North Carolina Supreme Court has upheld a $500,000 jury verdict against Duke University for ratifying a worker’s sexual harassment of another employee.

According to the evidence at trial the plaintiff began working at a division of Duke University’s medical center in 1991. She claimed that a co-worker embarked on an eight-month campaign of harassing behavior which included inappropriate sexual touching, graphic drawings, and obscene language.

Duke University never imposed any significant discipline on the sexual harasser even after the plaintiff reported the problem to her supervisor and personnel officials. A division head stepped in later and transferred the plaintiff to another department in March of 1992.

The plaintiff offered proof at trial that as a result of the harassment she suffered a variety of ailments including crying spells, vomiting, headaches, nightmares, and insomnia. She was diagnosed with depression and post traumatic stress disorder.

The jury found that Dixon, the harasser, committed a battery upon the plaintiff and that the plaintiff was entitled to recover $100 for that battery. In addition, the jury found that Dixon initially caused the plaintiff severe emotional distress and that Duke University ratified Dixon’s actions. The jury awarded the plaintiff $100,000 in compensatory damages for her emotional distress claim.

On the plaintiff’s punitive damages claim the jury required the defendant Dixon to pay $5,000 and required Duke University to pay the plaintiff $500,000 in punitive damages.

Both defendants appealed and the issue of the punitive damages claim against Duke University was recently decided by the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Duke University argued that the punitive damages liability against it, as an employer could not exceed the punitive damages awarded against Dixon, the employee.

The Supreme Court disagreed, writing “The objective of compensatory damages is to restore the plaintiff to his original condition or to make the plaintiff whole.” The amount of damages required to restore the plaintiff to his original condition or to make the plaintiff whole is the same, not withstanding ratification by the employer.

Punitive damages, on the other hand, are not necessarily intended to restore the plaintiff to his original condition or to make the plaintiff whole. It may take a different amount of money to deter or punish an employer-defendant like Duke than it would to deter an employee-defendant like Dixon.

“An employer who has ratified an employee’s tortious conduct should not be allowed to use it’s employee-limited financial resources as a shield against additional punitive damages.”

The facts in this case occurred in 1992. If those same facts occurred today, the punitive damages against Duke University would have been limited to $300,300.

Under a new law enacted by the General Assembly, punitive damages cannot exceed three times actual or compensatory damages or $250,000 whichever is greater.

In this case, the victim’s compensatory damages were $100,100.
______________________________

Comments:

My thanks first to Brent Adams for a clearly written, organized account of the case and explanation of what the court decided and why.

Many of you following the federal suits brought against Duke by victims of the Duke/Durham frame-up attempt and its ongoing cover-up must be shaking your heads and thinking: “Duke Medical Center’s mishandling of this case is in at least one important respect identical to its mishandling in the lacrosse case: In both cases supervisory personnel acted in ways that made an already bad situation much worse.”

I agree.

Today was my first visit to InjuryBoard.com. I was impressed. Here’s part of its self-description - - -

InjuryBoard is a growing community of personal injury law firms, attorneys, safety industry experts, and consumer advocates committed to making a difference by helping people avoid injury, and to helping those who are injured get the assistance they need to move on with their lives after an accident.

Along with its own national safety and injury news reporting team, InjuryBoard.com provides visitors with up-to-date regional safety and injury news, along with legal analysis from its nationwide network of more than 500 injury attorneys at 100 different law firms.

You can read the entire description here.

Hat tip: Ed in NY

Posted by JWM at 2:18 PM 2 comments
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http://raleigh.injuryboard.com/miscellaneous/duke-university-pays-500000-for-sexual-harassment.aspx?googleid=257472
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http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1413499.html


Published: Feb 21, 2009 12:30 AM
Modified: Feb 21, 2009 12:45 AM

Durham aims to aid city areas
Jim Wise, Staff Writer Comment on this story
DURHAM - Financial realities allowing, Durham's inner-city neighborhoods may soon get more attention from City Hall.

City Council members made that clear Friday morning at a budget retreat with city administrators, where they also heard a briefing on the city's federal stimulus prospects and reminders of the economic squeeze.

"We've got to turn our focus, even in challenging times," said councilman Mike Woodard, who is up for re-election this year.

Council members requested a change, though, in downtown revitalization funding: agreeing to cover obligations but rescinding the previous 1-cent allocation of the 54-cent tax rate. They also favored instituting a neighborhood revitalization fund at some specified portion of the tax rate.

"Downtown cannot continue to thrive if the neighborhoods around it are impoverished," Woodard said, quoting Mayor Bill Bell's recent state-of-the-city address. "Downtown has matured to the extent it may require less of our resources."

Council members Diane Catotti and Howard Clement agreed. "We want to see our neighborhoods revitalized," Catotti said. "I would like to hear a commitment that will happen," Clement said.

Work-force development administrator Kevin Dick mentioned several programs already under way, including matching incentives for businesses in depressed neighborhoods, such as Angier Avenue and North East Central Durham. The city has committed about $500,000 to five enterprises this year, Dick said, which the businesses have matched more than 100 percent.

City officials also told the council that additional cuts in this year's budget will be needed.

While city departments have already cut their costs about $3.2 million for the fiscal year that ends June 30, assistant budget director John Allore said the city will need more trims to balance a revenue shortfall now projected at $5.6 million.

For fiscal 2009-2010, the projected shortfall remains $24 million to $40 million, budget director Bertha Johnson said.

Department heads have been directed to plan 10 percent cuts in anticipated spending. At Friday's meeting, council members reviewed guidelines for the administration to follow in preparing next year's budget.

Durham may get some help from the federal stimulus act President Barack Obama signed Tuesday, said Karmisha Wallace, assistant to the city manager. Summarizing a congressional report, she said the city might share in provisions for clean energy, transit, job training and curtailing health-care costs.

The administration and council reiterated their intent to keep the property tax rate at 54 cents per $100 valuation next year.

jim.wise@newsobserver.com or 919-932-2004
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DURHAM -- Mayor Bill Bell was among a reported 85 municipal leaders from around the country who traveled to Washington late this week for talks with President Obama and other administration figures on the federal economic stimulus package.

Obama used a public session with the mayors in the East Room of the White House on Friday to stress that local governments will be held accountable for their use of the money


Well, I'm sure that with Durham's sterling record of accounting for every federal penny it receives, there will be no problems. . . (insert sarcasm smiley)
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http://www.examiner.com/x-2913-Boston-Republican-Examiner~y2009m2d20-Attorney-General-Eric-Holder-we-are-a-nation-of-cowards-on-matters-of-race

It's Eric Holder and his fellow travelers who are the cowards
10 comments
February 20, 7:39 AM
by John Kinsellagh, Boston Republican Examiner
« Previous
In a speech he gave for Black History Month, Attorney General Eric Holder called America a nation of cowards when it comes to discussing racial matters in a frank manner. In light of the fact that many white voters were instrumental in helping to elect the nation's first African-American president, I can't think of a more incongruous speech nor a more inopportune time for making such comments, ironically, coming out of the mouth of the nation's first African-American Attorney General.

Instead of celebrating the election of Barack Obama as a historical milestone in the nation's history, Holder characterizes his ascension to the presidency as dealing, "with the reality of electing an African American as our President for the first time." An odd choice of words. Could he not have simply acknowledged the significance of this achievement to the effect that discrimination against blacks has been markedly reduced?

Probably not, and here's why: Holder is a member of that liberal constituency group that I would characterize as "the perpetually aggrieved." No matter the extent of the progress America has made in eradicating the past sins of racism or discrimination, any such efforts will always be deemed incomplete, demonstrating the need for further erosion of our liberties to satisfy their undefined standards of perfection. For those like Holder, discrimination that occurred in the past will always be sufficient justification for remedial action to be administered by the heavy hand of government in the present and eternally into the future. Exactly what conditions would satisfy Holder to the effect that we are no longer a racist country? He doesn't say.

Many of those who share Holder's sentiments were part of the lynch mob who were perfectly happy to find the members of the Duke Lacrosse Team guilty before any of the facts were known simply by virtue of their skin color and because the alleged circumstances of the case conveniently fit their preferred template of America as a racist country. Speaking of "cowardly", did Holder speak out against the despicable treatment meted out to the innocent members of the Lacrosse team by the media and Duke University as aiders and abettors of a racially-motivated monstrous hoax? Did he condemn prominent African-American leaders who all too eagerly jumped on the bandwagon?

If he wants frank discussions about race then he should be prepared to defend the continued practice of quota hiring system and a racial spoils system. Is Holder, like the Democratic Party, inextricably tied to the practice of identity politics? One could make the plausible argument that Barack Obama were he white would have been laughed off the stage if he tried to run for president based on his razor thin resume and scant qualifications as a "community organizer."

Obama enjoyed unparalleled advantages by virtue of his skin color, as have all beneficiaries of affirmative-action/quota hiring policies. Perhaps Holder can explain to us exactly how was Obama's race a hindrance to his running for president?

Holder addresses the issue of affirmative action by stating:

There can, for instance, be very legitimate debate about the question of affirmative action. This debate can, and should, be nuanced, principled and spirited. But the conversation that we now engage in as a nation on this and other racial subjects is too often simplistic and left to those on the extremes who are not hesitant to use these issues to advance nothing more than their own, narrow self interest.

Thus, Holder acknowledges that legitimacy of debating the need for affirmative action, but, in the same breath paints those who oppose it as belonging on the "extremes" and are interested in using it to advance their self-interest. Sounds like a cowardly way to have a frank discussion about race if you're going to stigmatize those who oppose reverse discrimination as racist.

Holder may call for a "frank" discussion on race, but as long as he and his fellow travellers in the media continue to invoke the race card, which Obama wielded so skillfully in the past election, no one will oblige him in his plea for candor when latent charges of "racism" will always act as to preclude an intellectually honest and enlightening debate. In terms of defining the permissible contours of debate on many issues of race, as long as there exists one standard for whites and a completely different one for blacks, any ensuing discussion will be nothing more than an exercise in futility.
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http://insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?pagerid=2&news=fdetail&storyid=197774

Men's Lacrosse: Blue Devils Hold Off Raiders, 9-8

February 20, 2009
from press releases

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DURHAM, N.C.—Duke University senior Brad Ross tallied a goal with 2:51 left in the fourth quarter to lift the fifth-ranked Blue Devils to a 9-8 victory over No. 15 Colgate. Ross finished the day with two scores, registering the first and last goals of the contest.

The win is the second for the Blue Devils over a top-20 opponent this season. Senior Ned Crotty paced Duke for the second straight week with four points from two goals and two assists. Five other players scored a point in the game.

Colgate senior Brandon Corp led all players with five points off of four goals and one assist. Classmate Kevin Colleluori added three scores and a helper to the cause.

“[The game] was awesome,” head coach John Danowski said “First of all it’s February 20 and you have to keep all of this in perspective. It is so early. The intensity and [Colgate’s] comeback and our ability to learn to withstand another team’s run and then try and make plays. I was really proud of our team and really obviously delighted with the outcome.”

Duke jumped out to a 7-1 lead midway through the second quarter before Corp scored twice to make it 7-3 at halftime and set up a thrilling second half. The Blue Devils defense held the Raiders to just eight shots in the opening 30 minutes, including just one in the first quarter.

“We had a couple nuggets early, picked off a few passes,” senior defenseman Ryan McFadyen said. “We were playing really confident. The first quarter went really well. I think it was 3-0 at the end of the quarter, we were feeling good, protecting the crease and stuff. All of us were playing together.”

An unassisted man-up score 16 seconds into the third quarter by Ned Crotty made it an 8-3 game and seemed to put Duke in control of the game. However, the Raider defense came up with big plays over the next few possessions and the offense took advantage of a couple opportunities to make a furious comeback.

“I thought Colgate did a great job of defending us,” Danowski said. “The goalie came up with some timely saves. I think the second half we were 2 for 22 shooting, which is not going too bode well down the line, but again for February 20 that is going to happen. You’re not going to be the sharpest that you’re going to be all year.”

The Raiders scored four unanswered in a span of 4:28, including one in the final second of the frame. The two teams came out of the huddle and continued the outstanding defensive efforts. With both teams being held scoreless for 10 minutes, Corp finally tied the score for Colgate with an underhanded shot past Duke keeper Rob Schroeder.

After a failed clear attempt for the Raiders, Duke took advantage. The Blue Devils sent a pair of shots wide before Crotty could get one on net. Harrington came up with the big save, but Duke’s Steve Schoeffel was there to corral the ground ball. He found Ross who was able to work his way around a short-stick defender and get the winning score.

“We were kind of scrambling and I got a short stick and I was trying to go down the side. They showed on the side and I just kind of rolled back and let [a shot] go,” Ross said.

Rookie CJ Costabile tallied his first career goal, while sophomore Mike Manley also added a score as a pair of long poles got on the board for the Blue Devils in the game.

Duke held a 41-26 advantage in shots and won the ground ball battle 44-33. At the faceoff X, senior Sam Payton won 9-of-16 restarts to help the Blue Devils take 11-of-19 overall. Colgate’s Jim Carroll went 8-of-18 for the evening.

In goal, Schroeder made five saves, including two in the fourth quarter, while Harrington made 13 stops for the Raiders.

Duke returns to action on Feb. 22, hosting Harvard at 12 p.m., at Koskinen Stadium.
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http://www.southtownstar.com/news/1395483,012509mcginnisfolo.article

Secret discipline of $150,000-a-year DUI judge 'could take two years'
(http://www.southtownstar.com/news/1395483,012509mcginnisfolo.article)

January 25, 2009

By KIM JANSSEN, Staff Writer

She quietly pleaded guilty to drunken driving and was sentenced on the day President Obama was inaugurated.

But it may be another two years before Cook County Judge Sheila McGinnis is disciplined by the authorities who oversee Illinois judges - if they discipline her, according to the executive director of the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board.

McGinnis on Tuesday dodged a potential one-year jail term when she admitted drunkenly crashing her Chevrolet sport utility vehicle into the back of a family-of-four's minivan May 9 in Tinley Park.

With the attention of the Southland and the world focused on Washington, D.C., Judge Edward Burmila fined McGinnis $1,000, ordered her to complete an 18-month probation stint, to attend counseling and to attend a victim impact panel during a brief hearing at the Markham courthouse.

The sentence was normal for a first-time offender, Burmila said.

But McGinnis, a cousin of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, continues to draw a $150,000 judge's salary from the county. She was transferred from a criminal courtroom to administrative duties at the Daley Center after her arrest last summer.

Secrecy governs the process by which judges are disciplined in Illinois, meaning the JIB cannot reveal if an official complaint has been made against McGinnis in her role as a judge, JIB executive director Kathy Twine said.

The board has the power to refer judges' cases to the Illinois Court Commission, which can censure, suspend or dismiss judges.

A SouthtownStar survey of Illinois Court Commission records shows that not one of the eight Illinois judges investigated for DUIs since 1973 has been removed from the bench for even one day.

Seven of the drunken-driving judges were reprimanded.

Just one, Robert D. Law, who allegedly was involved in three drunken-driving incidents, was censured, in 1974.

Twine declined to say how long it would take for McGinnis' case to be dealt with, or even if a complaint has been made, but she added, "some cases take a year, or two years - it depends on the circumstances."

Asked if a DUI case could take two years, Twine said, "it depends on the circumstances."

Raymond McGury, one of six members of the JIB who will rule on McGinnis' case if a complaint is made, said he would "not expect" a DUI to result in a judge's dismissal.

He was not familiar with McGinnis' case and could not comment on it directly, he said.

McGinnis first indicated on Nov. 14 that she would plead guilty. It was her fifth appearance in court on the DUI charge, just 10 days after voters retained her in the Nov. 4 election.

She refused a Breathalyzer test at the scene of the accident and was still trying to leave when police arrived, prosecutors said.

After her conviction Tuesday, she dodged a waiting press photographer at the Markham courthouse by using a rear exit reserved for judges and police.

Her attorney, Jeff Aprati, said he had "no idea" the Jan. 20 court date would coincide with Obama's inauguration when he requested the date Nov. 14.

McGinnis is "an excellent judge" who is "absolutely morally qualified" to remain on the bench, he said.

In 20 years of defending misdemeanor DUI cases, he had never encountered a drunken driver who lost his or her job because of a conviction, he said.

He added, "except for maybe a truck driver who needed his license."

McGinnis has legally been allowed to drive since having her license restored in December.

Kim Janssen can be reached at kjanssen@southtownstar.com .
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HSLAXMOM

YAY, COLLIN!

http://www.insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?PageRID=2&news=fdetail&StoryID=197995

BALTIMORE - Loyola jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after the first period and was able to sustain the momentum from that point, using four goals and an assist from attackman Collin Finnerty and a pair from Matt Langan to down neighbor Towson, 11-8, on Saturday in the Greyhounds' home opener at Diane Geppi-Aikens Field in front of 2,436 fans.

For Finnerty, the performance marked the second consecutive game in which the junior has scored five points on four goals--three of them coming in the first quarter. He also scored five in Loyola's season opener against Notre Dame last weekend in Atlanta.

snip

Finnerty earned points on Loyola's first three goals and Loyola led 4-0 after the first quarter. He got the scoring started just 1:03 into the game with an unassisted goal. Sophomore Eric Lusby doubled the Loyola lead, 2-0, at the 8:07 mark as he scored with assist from Finnerty.

Four minutes later, Finnerty would again find the net with another unassisted tally.

snip

Just 21 seconds before halftime, Finnerty snuck into the interior of the defense and received a pass from Cooper MacDonnell, burying his attempt high past Wheeler to give Loyola a 6-2 lead going into intermission.

"Collin is really playing some of his best lacrosse right now. He's playing with a lot of confidence and when he gets himself set to shoot, he can be very tough to defend," Toomey said.

snip

On the ensuing face-off after Lamon's second goal, John Schiavone earned the win and drove upfield, dishing off to Finnerty, who netted his fourth goal of the day and eighth of the season.

snip
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Kerri P.
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Quote:
 
"Collin is really playing some of his best lacrosse right now. He's playing with a lot of confidence and when he gets himself set to shoot, he can be very tough to defend," Toomey said.


This will be repeated a lot this season. :bd: :bd:
Edited by Kerri P., Feb 21 2009, 08:18 PM.
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:lax P: :lax P: :lax P:

Mr. Finnerty. By any definition of the term...

:elmer: :elmer:
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