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Blog and Media Roundup - Tuesday, March 2, 2010; News Roundup
Topic Started: Mar 2 2010, 07:46 AM (492 Views)
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/6502780/article-Lopez--Crime-down-3--in-2009?instance=homefirstleft


Lopez: Crime down 3% in 2009
03.01.10 - 10:00 pm
By Ray Gronberg

gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

DURHAM -- Citywide crime counts dropped by about 3 percent in 2009, led by significant decreases in the eastern and northern parts of Durham, police said during a briefing for elected officials Monday night.

There were 13,316 major crimes in the city during the year, 369 fewer than in 2008, according to the report presented to the City Council by Police Chief Jose Lopez.

Violent crimes -- homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults -- were down 11 percent. Counts in all four categories dropped over the year, to 1,605. That was 205 fewer than the year before.

Robberies were the focus of a special effort by police, Lopez said.

The chief said the city benefited from the decision of court-system officials to raise bonds for crimes involving the use of a weapon. Many accused robbers remain behind bars.

"It's quite clear you and I were right when we went to the courts about this," Lopez told Mayor Bill Bell, referring to lobbying effort he and the mayor mounted amongst Durham's judges and magistrates.

Property crime -- the much-more-numerous burglaries, larcenies and motor-vehicle thefts -- was down about 1 percent.

The only category that showed an increase for the year was burglary, but it appears to have peaked in the late summer and early fall, Lopez said.

The overall count of property crime came in at 11,711, down 164 on the year.

Police estimate that burglars and thieves collectively stole more than $10.6 million worth of goods from Durham residents in 2009.

Lopez also said department leaders are pleased with the ongoing Operation Bull's Eye initiative, an effort to tamp down crime in North-East Central Durham.

Figures for the Police Department's five operating districts show that the biggest drops in crime in 2009 occurred in District 1, which covers North-East Central and other parts of east Durham.

Overall crime there was down about 10 percent, with the count in the district dropping by 286 crimes to 2,521.

Lopez said Bull's Eye -- which involves concentrated patrol and investigative efforts -- has roughly halved violent crime in North-East Central Durham since the last half of 2006.

Similar drops are evident in the neighborhoods surrounding the target area, he said.

There was also a 2-percent drop in overall crime in District 2, which covers the northern parts of the city.

Crime counts in Districts 3 and 4, which cover the southern and western parts of Durham, were mostly stable.

There was a small increase in District 5, which covers Durham's downtown business district, with the count rising by 14 crimes to 611. That translated into a 2 percent increase.

Lopez noted that two recent surveys -- one by the city, the other by the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau -- gave the Durham Police Department's crime-control efforts good marks.

Council members were clearly pleased by the numbers. "This is the road we need to be on in terms of improvement," Councilman Eugene Brown said.
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/6502720/article-Butler--Allsbrook--Beyer-seek-local-offices?instance=main_article


Butler, Allsbrook, Beyer seek local offices
03.01.10 - 09:47 pm
By Matthew E. Milliken

mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684

DURHAM -- Here is a brief look at some of the individuals running for local office.

- Tony Butler

This 49-year-old former Highway Patrolman is challenging incumbent Sheriff Worth Hill for the fifth straight election.

Hill won the 2006 Democratic primary handily, finishing with 78 percent of the vote.

Butler was a Guilford County deputy from 1980 to 1982, after which he spent 11 years as a state trooper based in Durham and Asheboro. He currently pastors churches in both communities. Butler is employed as a certified nursing assistant and CNA trainer at Butner State Hospital.

The candidate has a detailed vision for the future of the sheriff's office, which he believes should include rigorous training and extensive community outreach. He is also interested in empowering detention officers to make arrests to improve responses to major crimes.

An expansion of the department's technology is also on Butler's agenda.

"We must use every modern cutting edge of technology to protect our citizens, especially our senior citizens," he said.

One other candidate, Republican Roy Taylor, is also running for Durham County sheriff.

- Wayne Allsbrook

This school board candidate said he is running in District 4B seat with his 3-year-old daughter in mind.

"We have to be willing to give back to the school system," Allsbrook said. "We have to be willing to be more involved with the school system."

The candidate is a 34-year-old M.B.A. student at Strayer University who attends classes at the Morrisville campus. He graduated in 1999 from Fayetteville State with a bachelor's degree in political science and currently is a salesman for Verizon Wireless.

He taught a special education class in Fayetteville for a year after earning his bachelor's degree.

Allsbrook is running against incumbent Stephen Martin and challengers Natalie Beyer (see below) and Shea Neville in District 4B, which consists of most of Northern and Eastern Durham County.

If elected, Allsbrook said his priorities would be to get the community more involved in the school system and to revive after-school programs.

- Natalie Beyer

Beyer is seeking the School Board 4B seat in her first run for public office in race. The seat is held by Stephen Martin and is also being contested by Wayne Allsbrook (see above) and Shea Neville.

"One of the things I'm most interested in is listening to teachers better ... especially in light of recruiting and retaining great teachers," Beyer said.

Beyer studied behavioral science and English as an undergraduate at Rice University and earned a master's degree in health care administration from UNC Chapel Hill's School of Public Health.

A Durham native and former administrator at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Beyer is involved in the Durham public school system as a mother and advocate.

The 41-year-old has a daughter at Club Boulevard Elementary School and two sons at W.G. Pearson Magnet Middle School. She helped start a community group last fall that criticized changes to the Durham reading curriculum.

If elected, Beyer said her priorities would include preserving arts and music education for all students despite the current budget crunch.
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/6502846/article-Police-shoot--wound-man-in-Durham?instance=main_article


Police shoot, wound man in Durham
03.01.10 - 10:08 pm
By KEITH UPCHURCH

kupchurch@heraldsun.com; 419-6612

DURHAM -- A man who was shot and wounded by Durham police Saturday was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.

The man was shot after police responded to a report about shots fired in a southwestern Durham subdivision, police said Monday.

Officials are not releasing further details about the shooting because it is being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Police Department's Professional Standards Unit, police spokeswoman Kammie Michael said Monday.

Those investigations are standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.

The officers involved were Jose F. Cruz and Michael S. Bonfiglio.

Michael said the name of the wounded man was not being released "at this time."

No charges have been filed.

She said police originally responded to a 911 hang-up call at the new Belcrest subdivision, off Juliette Drive and Fayetteville Road.

In another 911 recording, an officer says there was a man in the rear of a home with a gun and shots were being fired.

Officers responded to the call about 1:41 p.m. near Juliette Drive and Rosaline Lane, about two miles north of The Streets at Southpoint mall.

Michael said police confronted a man with a handgun in the 100 block of Rosaline Lane "and the male was shot." He was taken to Duke University Hospital.

Police declined to say Monday if both officers shot the man, how many times he was shot and on which parts of his body he was wounded.
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/6501416/article-Cline--Siler-feted-by-bar-association?instance=main_article

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Cline, Siler feted by bar association
03.01.10 - 06:24 pm
by John McCann

jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601

DURHAM -- They needed extra chairs inside a ballroom at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center on account of a couple of trailblazers getting shown some love, according to Assistant District Attorney Doretta Walker.

Walker is treasurer for the George H. White Bar Association, composed mostly of black lawyers but open to attorneys of other ethnic groups.

The organization has an annual banquet to recognize Durham lawyers and award scholarships. The event generally attracts a crowd, but folks really showed up on Feb. 20, Durham lawyer James D. "Butch" Williams said. It had to do with the honorees, he said.

The spotlight in that ballroom was on two N.C. Central University School of Law graduates: Durham County District Attorney Tracey Cline and Durham County Attorney Lowell Siler.

In 2009, Cline was sworn in as the first female district attorney in Durham County, and became the first black district attorney here.

Siler became the first black attorney for Durham County, also in 2009.

"It marked the end of a long struggle," Durham lawyer Pat Evans said. She particularly was referring to Cline.

"That's what we live for," Evans said. "It makes the struggle worthwhile."

Siler knows something about the struggle, Williams said. For a long time, Siler was the most qualified person among his peers, yet he wasn't the top man, according to Williams.

Siler began working with Durham County as an assistant county attorney in 1987. Modeling strength, character and perseverance, Siler endured and at long last got the breakthrough, Williams said.

Both Williams and Siler were at NCCU for undergraduate work, and they became roommates while in law school there. They've known each other since 1972, Williams said. That's a lot of time to accumulate a whole bunch of stories -- not all of them fit to print in this newspaper.

Williams had a little fun with that at the banquet.

"I kind of roasted him up," Williams said.

Edward Blount, Siler's cousin, joined Williams in the ribbing. Cline was roasted by her brother, Terry, and Assistant District Attorney Jim Dornfried.

Recognizing the next generation of lawyers, the George H. White Bar Association awarded $1,000 scholarships to NCCU law school students Agu Onuma, Sharif Deveaux and Sandy Lam. Jordan High School student Angelica Mitchell was awarded a $250 scholarship.
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http://dukechronicle.com/article/planning-better-durham

Planning for a better Durham
By Eugene Wang
March 2, 2010


Subtitle:
news analysis

Facing down a $15 million budget gap for the next fiscal year, Durham is moving forward with codifying its first-ever strategic plan.

The plan has been in the works since last summer, and the city is currently expected to complete and unveil the plan early this summer. Run through the City Manager’s office, the strategic plan will incorporate multiple existing department-level strategic plans.

“This is the first step,” said Jay Reinstein, strategic initiatives manager in Durham’s Budget and Management Service department, adding that he devotes about 30 percent of his day-to-day work to the planning process. “[The plan] will really guide how we conduct business and how we guide resources and the annual budget.”

Although the plan is still being constructed, the city completed and released its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Challenges survey of Durham employees, citizens and institutional stakeholders Feb. 12. The SWOC survey asked respondents their opinions on a broad swath of city issues, ranging from the state of Durham’s transportation network to internal communication between departments.

The survey will lay the foundation for the plan itself, according to a Durham news release. In addition to the four SWOC categories, respondents also offered their take on what the city’s priorities should be.

The timeline for the strategic plan, which is posted on the city’s Web site, expects that implementation will begin in September, even though the city budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year is set in June. City Councilmember Diane Catotti, however, said mid-fiscal year adjustments in January may allow the city to implement the plan without waiting a year before the next budget cycle.

“I don’t know if the plan will change [City Council] operations that much. It’s a really good process, but it’s more of an enhancement,” Catotti said. “We are not waiting to make operational changes. If there are efficiencies or adjustments we can make now, we are all for them.”

The recession

Catotti pointed to some recurring issues like poor local transportation infrastructure that may require significant investment and thus would need to be incorporated into the budget next June. Both citizens and city staff listed public transportation and old infrastructure in the SWOC survey as major challenges facing Durham.

Although expanding the transportation network and repairing deteriorating streets are laudable goals, they at times need to be moderated by the realities of city governance. Given the current recession, projects involving significant operational costs will need to be considered in the context of the city’s resources, Catotti noted.

“It is obviously making all of us very mindful of our constraints,” she said. “Constraints are not new. We have not had adequate resources to address all the many needs and concerns, so you always have to prioritize. I think what the strategic plan does is that it focuses very clearly on what our priorities are, given limited resources.”

Although Durham has generally survived the recession better than other cities in North Carolina, the poor economy has been a factor in the development of the plan, Reinstein said. A comprehensive strategic plan will help the city focus the annual budget and put in place accountability mechanisms to ensure that resources are used effectively, he added.

“I think everything is just going to have to be slower [with the recession],” said Evan Covington-Chavez, residential development director at Self-Help, a community financial development organization and a stakeholder included in the SWOC survey. “We won’t have a quick pace getting anything accomplished.... There will probably have to be some prioritizing.”

City Manager Tom Bonfield, however, said he does not think the recession will affect the implementation of the plan. The plan will be more useful in guiding the city’s priorities as the economy recovers and the city nets new tax revenue, he said.

“We know that the rate of growth in new revenues—whether it be sales taxes or property taxes—is going to be substantially slower in Durham than we’ve experienced in a long, long time,” Bonfield said. “To spend those dollars, we need to have a strategic plan.... The plan isn’t necessarily going to say, ‘Here are the new projects.’ It’s more setting the direction of priorities.”

What came before

Bonfield said he saw a need for a comprehensive strategic plan after talking with the City Council and city staff when he came to Durham in mid-2008. Bonfield previously worked as the city manager of Pensacola, Fla.

“There was a sense that we in Durham have seemed to kind of react to issues and bounce from issue to issue and not stick with a plan,” Bonfield said. “From my general experience and knowledge, the organizations in local governments that do have a strategic plan are more successful. Just across the board, that’s fact.”

Previous attempts to create a city-wide strategic plan fell short of completion. In 1998, the city manager’s office collected data from citizen and stakeholder surveys, but did not have the necessary support from city leaders to create a full-fledged strategic plan, Reinstein said.

But with Bonfield’s arrival in 2008, and with support from Mayor Bill Bell and the council, all the stars aligned to facilitate the creation of a comprehensive plan.

“Personally, I think the strategic plan should have been implemented earlier, because it helps make sure the decisions you make in any area are held accountable,” said Councilmember Farad Ali. “Right now, this is allowing us to be more forward thinking in recognizing that we’re building the foundations in the strategic plan for councils in the future.”

Duke’s involvement

To gather data, the city employed the help of Zelos Consulting, a firm specializing in government and nonprofit organizations, to solicit opinions from more than 380 staff members and all 25 department directors, according to the SWOC document. Additionally, 204 citizens and 18 institutional stakeholders were polled for their thoughts.

Although Duke was one of the 18 stakeholders, the University did not return its survey in time for the SWOC document’s publication, Reinstein said. The responses from the four stakeholders who responded in time are included in the document.

“It’s been slow,” said Phail Wynn, Duke’s vice president for Durham and regional affairs, referring to the response rate of the top administrators and deans to whom Wynn distributed the stakeholder survey. “Only a quarter of them have sent me back anything. But what has come in so far has been generally positive.”

Recent downtown revitalization, including the development of the Durham Performing Arts Center, was a common point of praise among administrators and deans, Wynn said.

He added, however, that crime and security concerns remain an issue among the ten or so Duke officials surveyed. Wynn said that given the University’s role as the city’s largest employer, he expects to see Duke featured prominently in the strategic plan when it is unveiled to the public.

“What I am trying to do is to broaden and deepen Duke’s role as an advocate in working with the city on these key issues,” Wynn said. “We on the Duke side know what the city’s main concerns are, but the city is also interested in Duke’s concerns.”

With a yawning budget gap and diminished prospects for revenue growth, strategic planning may not necessarily present ambitious new projects to invest in. Rather, the plan will likely modify the priorities of multiple city departments so they are all pointing in the same direction, so that when growth returns it will be managed effectively, Bonfield said.

“To me, it’s one more tool in the toolbox,” Catotti said. “We always knew we weren’t going to solve these problems overnight.”
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http://dukechronicle.com/article/volunteer-patrols-help-local-crime-prevention

Volunteer patrols help with local crime prevention
By Jessica Chang
March 2, 2010

A vandalized car sits in the middle of a street, and on top of its trunk is a bag of white powder. After an observer spots the car, a police officer is called to test the powder and it becomes clear that the bag contains only laundry powder and that the car was most likely demolished in a bad drug deal.

That’s a typical situation Frances Brown, District Two captain for the Citizen Observer Patrol program, might face on his weekly patrol.

The Citizen Observer Patrol program, also called Citizens on Patrol, is a volunteer group under the direction of the Durham Police Department that gives volunteers an opportunity to actively assist DPD in deterring crime and enhancing quality of life in the community.

Durham’s program began in September 2003 after Eric Hester, founder of the program and currently the crime prevention officer at the Duke University Police Department, modeled it after a successful COP program in Broward County, Fla. The program there had 2,500 volunteers and 250 patrol cars, and some areas of Broward County where the program had been implemented experienced as much as a 65 percent decrease in crime rates, Hester said.

“It was a way in which law enforcement could connect with the community and strengthen opportunities in working together so they could help us in creating solutions to concerns within the neighborhood,” Hester said.

Durham’s COP started by patrolling in District Two and expanded last year to include Districts One and Four. The Durham Police Department is currently working to expand the program to include District Three. District Two encompasses North Duke Street, Broad Street and North Mangum Street.

COP volunteers patrol in pairs daily from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. in four-hour shifts, Brown wrote in an e-mail. All volunteers are required to do a minimum of two rides per month and attend a monthly meeting. Volunteers must be at least 21 years of age and go through specialized training and background checks done by DPD, said Erwin Baker, the major officer of the program. COP volunteers ride in retired police cars while on patrol.

Brown said that when volunteers are out patrolling, it is important that they carry police radios and wear uniforms, and are a visible presence in the neighborhood. But he added that they should only observe, not intervene, in problems they may encounter. No COP member has ever been placed in a dangerous situation or been harmed, Baker noted.

Brown said a typical shift consists of doing property checks for residents who are on vacation and checking on the sick and elderly. COP volunteers would also look for expired license plates, graffiti, abandoned vehicles, evidence of illegal activities and anything else that may affect the quality of life for residents.

“Most of the time I feel I have not completed everything I wanted to do,” he said.

Many Duke students who live off campus live in District Two, and they can benefit from the program by requesting property checks during spring break when they are away from their homes, Hester said. He added that of all the previously completed house checks, none of the houses were ever broken into.

Hester said he thinks the program has been effective, noting one particular example of a time when COP members checked on an elderly lady one evening and found her lying on the floor after falling and breaking her hip that morning. He said the volunteers saved her life.

“We know that property crime goes down just by our being out and reminding people not to leave a purse or anything else of value on the seat—put it in the trunk where eyes cannot see it,” Brown said.

Baker said that there had been recent problems with break-ins in District One during the day when people are at work, so a COP program was initiated in the district about three months ago. Volunteers passed out crime prevention flyers and continuously patrolled the district’s neighborhoods. District One borders the northeast side of East Main Street.

“Whether COP was directly responsible, I can’t say yea or nay because it’s not something that you can really measure, but as a result of them patrolling, the break-ins for that particular community did decrease by 50 percent,” Harris said.

Brown said the program is currently on a down cycle in the number of members but that they are actively recruiting and adding new volunteers.

“We want more publicity for the program, but we have to be careful how we get it,” he said. “We don’t want the bad guys to decide to target us. We have a ride-along program where citizens interested can ride with us and see if it fits into their lifestyle. If it doesn’t, all they have lost is four hours of their time, and we have another person educated about us.”

Baker added that although he thinks the program is working well, it needs more funding for specialized vehicles and uniforms.

“We’ve gotten grants, but everything costs money,” he said.
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http://dukechronicle.com/article/nowicki-awaits-socioeconomic-diversity-report

Nowicki awaits socioeconomic diversity report
By Naureen Khan
March 2, 2010

Five months after the launch of the Socioeconomic Diversity Initiative, administrators are still working on the report they hope will parse how differences in class background affect Duke students’ experiences.

The Institutional Review Board approved of the proposed one-year initiative last summer. Now, those spearheading the project—modeled after the Women’s Initiative but on a smaller scale—expect that the study will extend into the 2011 -2012 academic year.

Alison Rabil, director of financial aid, and Donna Lisker, associate dean of undergraduate education, are currently conducting focus groups for the initiative. They said they will present a progress report to Steve Nowicki by the end of the Spring semester. Nowicki, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, proposed and announced the project earlier last year.

More than 40 percent of Duke students receive need-based financial assistance. At the same time, approximately 21.6 percent of students come from families that make more than $300,000 a year, according to self-reported senior survey data compiled by the Office of Institutional Research from 2007 to 2009.

With Duke bolstering its financial aid program in recent years and the percentage of aided students expected to rise, administrators said it was time to take a closer look at Duke’s accessibility from the perspective of students with more modest means. Added expenses for classes, dues for clubs and greek organizations and the social implications of being on financial aid are all topics that the initiative hopes to broach.

But progress has been slower than planned.

“The issues are deep and I would rather have Donna [Lisker] and Alison Rabil take their time and do it right rather than rush and get some answer,” Nowicki said. “They’ve learned that some of the dimensions we were thinking about looking at aren’t as interesting, and there are new dimensions that we weren’t thinking of looking at that are interesting. As they’ve been thinking about focus groups, they’re sort of growing beyond our original thinking.”

Since the initiative was approved, four focus groups, each with five or six student participants, have been conducted and videotaped. They will be viewed at a later date for further analysis. Administrators had planned to do 10 focus groups over the course of this year with 10 to 12 participants in each, The Chronicle reported last September.

Nowicki, Lisker and Rabil said the complexity and sensitivity surrounding the topic of socioeconomic diversity has necessitated a slower-simmering approach than they initially anticipated.

“It’s clear to us that this is a complex landscape that we’re going to have to keep carrying forward into the Fall semester and into next year,” Lisker said. “I’d like the pace to pick up a little bit.”

Scheduling students willing to take part in the study has presented unforeseen challenges, officials said. Approximately 25 students receiving financial aid—who were part of a random sample generated by the Office of Institutional Research—have participated in the study so far. Administrators said they are also planning on targeting students not on financial aid to participate in focus groups, as well as possibly integrating a survey and interviews with parents and alumni into the report.

Lisker noted that 200 subjects took part in the Women’s Initiative to provide a full picture of the issue, and the SDI too will continue to move forward until administrators start hearing redundant data. Administrators said they hope the SDI sparks discussion on the often uncomfortable topics of money.

“Social class is a hard thing to talk about,” Lisker said. “Not that race is easy, or gender is easy, but we have more practice.”

Rabil and Lisker said that although they might not be able to change an embedded culture on campus, they will suggest concrete policy changes to ease excess burden, if there is any, for aided students.

“Students on financial aid always have to make choices—we always have to make choices about how we spend our money,” Rabil said. “But you really should be able to have as valuable an experience at Duke as any other student.... The purpose of the study is to check ourselves. Are we doing that?”

The implications of socioeconomic difference among Duke students has been largely untouched by the majority of the campus culture reports that have come out in the last decade. The Campus Culture Initiative makes no mention of the issue.

“The forgotten dimension has been socioeconomic difference,” Nowicki said. “It has been one factor all of these different studies haven’t really addressed squarely or at all.”

Administrators hope to report back to the Board of Trustees once they have crystallized findings.

“[Socioeconomic diversity] ought to mean that we look for talent in its many forms and once that’s discovered we’re going to make sure there are no financial hurdles for bringing that talent to Duke,” said Board Chair and Democratic state Sen. Dan Blue, Law ’73. “That ensures you’ll have the socioeconomic diversity that enriches the experience of all students.”

Lindsey Rupp contributed reporting.
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http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/03/02/365561/crime-is-down-in-durham.html


Published Tue, Mar 02, 2010 05:23 AM
Modified Mon, Mar 01, 2010 11:22 PM
Crime is down in Durham

DURHAM Violent crime was down 11 percent during 2009, Police Chief Jose L. Lopez said Monday in his annual report to the City Council.

Property crimes were down 1 percent, while the overall decline was 3 percent from 2008. Burglary was the only category to show an increase, rising 4 percent, from 3,503 incidents to 3,655, while motor-vehicle thefts fell 15 percent from 878 to 743.

Lopez took less than 8 minutes to make his report, though he supplemented his oral presentation with a written summary of the year's work and results.

"This is the road we need to be on," said councilman Eugene Brown, who asked for one statistic the chief didn't have - the number of arrests for driving while texting.

"We'll come back to you with that," Lopez said.

Statistics he did have included a drop in homicide from 25 in 2007 to 24 in 2008 and 21 in 2009; in rape, from 88 in 2007 to 71 in 2008 and 67 in 2009; and, a drop in aggravated assault, from 828 to 826 to 801, respectively.

Robbery, the fourth category of violent crime, rose from 800 in 2007 to 889 in 2008, but fell 19 percent, to 716, last year - a change Lopez called "particularly significant."

"We focused on robberies in 2009," Lopez said. Officers concentrated on high-robbery areas and benefited from several 2008 arrests of suspects thought to be responsible for multiple robberies. "Those suspects remain in jail," he said.

Lopez cited Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau surveys that show residents have an improved sense of safety in their own neighborhoods and downtown as proof of the effect of his department's crime-fighting efforts.

Mayor Bill Bell did not accept public comment onLopez's report.
jim.wise@newsobserver.com or 919-932-2004
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http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/03/02/365438/media-protest-atwaters-bid.html


Published Tue, Mar 02, 2010 05:25 AM
Modified Mon, Mar 01, 2010 11:22 PM
Media protest call for reports on Carson case

GREENSBORO Media companies across North Carolina are fighting attempts by federal defense attorneys to force them to hand over copies of anything that has been published about the Eve Carson homicide case.

Demario Atwater, 23, is one of two suspects accused of murdering Carson, an admired UNC-Chapel Hill student body president found fatally shot in March 2008 nearly a mile from campus. Atwater faces not only a capital murder charge in state court, but also federal kidnapping and carjacking charges that are also punishable by death.

Laurence A. Lovette, 19, is also accused of murder at the state level. The Durham teenager is not charged federally in the case. Lovette, who was 17 at the time of the fatal shooting, does not face the death penalty because the U.S. Supreme Court deems anyone under 18 at the time of an offense too young to be executed.

Atwater, who is scheduled to go to trial on the federal charges in May, has asked a federal judge to move his trial from North Carolina to Virginia.

In an effort to make a case that it would be difficult to find potential jurors who were not influenced by extensive media coverage, federal defense lawyers have subpoenaed 60 news organizations for copies of all newspaper articles, letters and editorials about the case and copies of all publicly aired radio and television broadcasts. The public defenders also sought information about the circulation, viewing and listening audiences from each newspaper and TV and radio station.

In documents filed in federal court, news organizations teamed up to quash the subpoena, calling it an "unwarranted attempt" by the defense team to "convert numerous news organizations into research firms at a time when each of them is striving to serve their readers and viewers in the face of a challenging economy" and while "some of them are operating with reduced staffs."

The information being sought, according to a document written by Amanda Martin, a Raleigh lawyer representing The News & Observer and at least five other media companies, is generally available from public sources.

Martin argues that providing such information would be unduly burdensome and expensive for the media organizations. She also says the information "at best appears likely to be no more than marginally helpful" to the defense team's effort to move the trial.

A hearing on the matter has been set for 10 a.m. March 10 in Winston-Salem.

The flurry of activity in the federal court comes several days before the second anniversary of Carson's death.

Carson, a student from Athens, Ga., was found shot to death in the early morning of March 5, 2008, in a wooded Chapel Hill neighborhood.

At 4 p.m. Thursday,UNC-CH leaders will dedicate the Eve Marie Carson Garden, one of the many memorials to Carson's exuberance for life and spirit of generosity. The garden, which has been nearly two years in the making, will be in Polk Place, a grassy quadrangle that stretches south from the Campus Y and South Building administrative offices to the venerable Wilson library just north of South Road.
anne.blythe@newsobserver.com or 919 836-4948
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http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2010/03/02/news/mj2389459.txt

Attorney wants prosecutor off Montelon case

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

By KELLY METZ
kmetz@MorningJournal.com

ELYRIA — Terry Gilbert, defense attorney for Joseph Montelon, wrote a letter to Lorain County Prosecutor Dennis Will yesterday requesting Will remove himself from prosecuting Montelon, a former Lorain police officer.

Montelon is being investigated for being the writer of disparaging letters against Lorain city and county officials, including Will and Lorain police Chief Cel Rivera. He has not been indicted.

"Mr. Montelon is constitutionally entitled to fair and impartial proceedings in this matter," Gilbert wrote, adding several of the anonymous letters, allegedly authored by Montelon, included references and "insulting allegations against Lorain City and County officials," specifically to Will and George Koury, deputy Lorain County prosecutor.

"The writer further accuses (Will) of 'prosecutorial misconduct' for bringing rape charges against a person whom you 'knew was innocent' — comparing you to former Durham County, North Carolina prosecutor Mike Nifong, who gained notoriety and was disbarred due to his misconduct in the 2006 Duke University lacrosse rape case," Gilbert wrote to Will.

"The writer also accused (Will) of 'theft of office' for falsely billing excessive hours," Gilbert wrote, adding the letters also insult Will's weight and compares Will and Koury to characters from the film "Dumb and Dumber."

Because of these comparisons and references, Gilbert wrote he believes Will should be removed because he would express bias toward the comments and accusations.

"A reasonable and reputable public official, such as yourself, would naturally be outraged by the affrontive and derogatory allegations set forth in these letters and, understandingly, have a great personal interest in seeing that the author of such words be tried and convicted," Gilbert wrote.

Will said he has already been discussing having a special prosecutor brought in on the case with Lorain County Common Pleas Court presiding Judge Mark Betleski, not necessarily because of the letters, but because of other comments that have been made regarding the case.

"There have been other things alluding to and other statements made about this office regarding this case, which is why I talked to the judge," Will said. "I haven't followed up on this yet, but am waiting on a final decision to be made."

Gilbert, who said he has been in contact with the Department of Justice for the past few months regarding the "situation in Lorain," did not know Will had spoken with Betleski but said, "If that's the case, it's a welcome development, and I encourage the effort to do that."

Montelon was supposed to go before the grand jury and possibly be served with an indictment Feb. 18, but the hearing was postponed. Gilbert said he has not been informed of a new date.
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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/7146631/
Tie vote kills proposed Raleigh safety center
Posted: 57 minutes ago
Updated: 6 minutes ago

Raleigh, N.C. — The Raleigh City Council deadlocked Tuesday over plans for a public safety center downtown, effectively killing the $205 million project.

Mayor Charles Meeker and council members Mary-Ann Baldwin, Nancy McFarlane and James West supported raising property taxes by a half-cent in 2011 and another half-cent the following year to finance construction. But the proposal couldn't gain a necessary fifth vote to pass, as council members Gaylord Bonner, Thomas Crowder, John Odom and Russ Stephenson voted against it.

The 300,000-square-foot safety center would have housed the city's police and fire departments, as well as its 911 operations center and other emergency services. The 16-story building was supposed to occupy the site where the Raleigh Police Department headquarters sits at the corner of McDowell and Hargett streets.

Police Chief Harry Dolan said he was disappointed by the vote but added, "We have to move forward."

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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/7145825/
Black to get out of prison early
Posted: Today at 12:31 p.m.
Updated: 6 minutes ago

Raleigh, N.C. — Former state House Speaker Jim Black will get out of prison a year early, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons Web site.

Black, who is serving a 63-month sentence for corruption at a federal prison in Jesup, Ga., is scheduled to be released in March 2011, according to the Web site. When he was transferred last year to Jesup from a federal prison camp in Lewisburg, Pa., his release date was listed as March 2012.

Black's attorney, Jim Craven of Durham, had requested that a year be taken off the sentence if Black completed alcohol treatment while in prison. A representative of Craven also said the former lawmaker had earned good-behavior credits to trim time off his sentence.

Bureau of Prisons officials declined to comment Tuesday.

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2close2durham

I guess only Broadhead and the 88 could lend credibility to "Gore the Whore"

http://www.wral.com/news/local/noteworthy/story/7147135/
Al Gore to speak at Duke
Posted: Today at 2:35 p.m.
DURHAM, N.C. — Former Vice President Al Gore will give the 2010 spring Duke Environment and Society Lecture at 6 p.m. on April 8 place in Page Auditorium on Duke’s West Campus.
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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/noteworthy/story/7147135/
Al Gore to speak at Duke
Posted: Today at 2:35 p.m.

Durham, N.C. — Former Vice President Al Gore will give the 2010 spring Duke Environment and Society Lecture at 6 p.m. on April 8 place in Page Auditorium on Duke’s West Campus.

Gore shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his advocacy of environmental causes.

No admission is required, but attendance is limited. Tickets can be obtained at www.nicholas.duke.edu/deanseries.

“Since the beginning of his career, Al Gore has been relentless in his quest to bring the truth about global warming to the world, even when the world wasn’t listening,” said William L. Chameides, dean of Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “But the world can hear him now. We are fortunate and thrilled to have him bring his message to Duke.”
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