| Blog and Media Roundup - Friday, October 15, 2010; News Roundup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 15 2010, 04:12 AM (406 Views) | |
| abb | Oct 15 2010, 04:12 AM Post #1 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/9919018/article-6-candidates-vie-for-3-Durham-Superior-Court-slots?instance=main_article 6 candidates vie for 3 Durham Superior Court slots The Herald Sun 10.14.10 - 09:25 pm By John McCann jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601 DURHAM -- Early voting is underway for the Nov. 2 general election in which six judicial candidates are seeking three slots in Durham County Superior Court. One slot opened with Judge Ronald Stephens' announced retirement, another when Superior Court Judge Kenneth Titus decided not to seek reelection. And the slot to which Superior Court Judge Jim Hardin Jr. was appointed has to be filled by voters. The race is nonpartisan and the top three vote getters will win. Here's a look at the candidates. ELAINE BUSHFAN Elaine Bushfan is giving up her role as chief District Court judge with her eyes on making the jump to Superior Court. If victorious, Bushfan would become Durham's first female Superior Court judge. Bushfan became a District Court judge in 1994. She was named chief District Court judge in 2002. A Hillside High School graduate, Bushfan attended N.C. Central University, where she earned both undergraduate and law degrees. Community is near and dear to Bushfan's heart. She supported her husband's decision to launch a diner in East Durham with the idea of helping revitalize the economically challenged area. When Bushfan isn't spending time with family and friends, she enjoys playing the piano, singing and reading. JIM HARDIN JR. Superior Court Judge Jim Hardin Jr. is on the bench due to a gubernatorial appointment. He must get elected to stay there, and here's why he'd tell you he should: experience -- he's got more of it than the other judicial candidates on the ballot. Hardin grew up in Durham, where he went to Northern High School. He got his undergraduate degree from Duke University and earned a law degree from Mercer University. With more than a quarter of a century in the legal profession -- 20 as a prosecutor -- Hardin is known for arguing the case against Michael Peterson, who in 2003 was convicted of killing his wife. In 2005, Hardin was appointed as a special Superior Court judge but left in 2007 to take over as interim district attorney after Mike Nifong was disbarred. Hardin was on the football team at Duke, and he still gets in his workouts. He also plays a little golf. When he retires from legal work, Hardin -- a full colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve -- said he wouldn't mind going to school to study culinary arts. But for now, he cooks for family and friends. JAMES HUGHES Attorney James Hughes has practiced law in Durham since 1978. He focuses on civil litigation, including commercial litigation, personal injury, collections and employment in both federal and state courts. Hughes is a partner in the Hoof Hughes Law firm. The East Carolina University graduate earned his law degree from N.C. Central University. He served as executive editor of the Law Review at NCCU's law school, where he ranked No. 1 in his class. Away from the law, Hughes likes spending time on the coast. Sailing is something he enjoys. And books about the Revolutionary War era float his boat. The lawyer also is a baseball fan. Many moons ago, he'd host Durham Bulls baseball players, big leaguer Andruw Jones among them. MICHAEL O'FOGHLUDHA Lawyer Michael O'Foghludha has touted his broad range of experience in his bid to become a Superior Court judge. The Duke University graduate earned his law degree at UNC. O'Foghludha is the managing partner of Pulley, Watson, King & Lischer. He is into his 29th year practicing law. Once he shuts the law books, O'Foghludha likes to flip through scripts. He's president of Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern, a nonprofit theatre company in Durham. He's both acted in and directed productions. O'Foghludha also is a percussionist in a band. O'Foghludha serves on the board of directors for the Council for Senior Citizens. The lawyer used to coach youth soccer in Durham when his sons were growing up here. DAN READ Lawyer Dan Read said he wants to continue helping people from the Superior Court bench. Read earned his law degree at UNC. He also did his undergraduate studies there. After beginning his legal career as a staff attorney for the N.C. Court of Appeals, Read in 1986 began practicing trial law in Durham. He's handled both criminal and civil cases in both District Court and Superior Court. The lawyer spent two years stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army. Read, who regularly commutes by bicycle to his downtown office, is president of the Duke Park Neighborhood Association, a local precinct chairman for the Democratic Party and for a decade has been teaching Sunday school at a Durham gathering for those of the Quaker faith. CHRIS SHELLA Lawyer Chris Shella grew up in Hillsborough and attended N.C. School of Science and Mathematics before going to Morehouse College in Atlanta for undergraduate studies. After earning a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996, Shella worked as an assistant district attorney in Long Island, N.Y., before going into private practice. He practiced law in other states before coming home to North Carolina. Shella initially was a candidate for a District Court judgeship, pledging not to ask voters for campaign money out of consideration for the tight economy. But the lawyer decided his skill set was better suited for Superior Court. Away from the courtroom, Shella has coached baseball for the Holt Athletic Association. |
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| abb | Oct 15 2010, 04:14 AM Post #2 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/9919610/article-Durham-GOP-endorses-judicial-slate?instance=main_article Durham GOP endorses judicial slate The Herald Sun 10.14.10 - 10:11 pm From staff reports DURHAM -- The Durham County Republican Party this week issued endorsements in appellate races this fall. The group endorsed Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Jackson for the North Carolina Supreme Court judicial race. For the Court of Appeals the party backed three sitting Court of Appeals judges, Judge Sanford Steelman, Judge Ann Marie Calabria, Judge Rick Elmore, and ESC Appeals Referee Dean Poirier. For the Court of Appeals judicial seat with an instant runoff, it endorsed Raleigh lawyer Chris Dillon, Greensboro lawyer Jewell Farlow, former Durham lawyer and current counsel to the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks Daniel Garner, and former Court of Appeals Judge Doug McCullough. Each voter will rank three candidates in that race. The county Republicans also addressed Durham County race for Superior Court for District 14B. That race allows voters to select three new Superior Court Judges from a field of six candidates. The group is backing former District Attorney and sitting Superior Court Judge Jim Hardin to continue as a Superior Court Judge. It's also backing Mike O'Foghludha and Jim Hughes. In the race for one contested district court seat in District 14, the party backs attorney Brian Aus and in the race for the other contested District 14 seat, the party is backing Assistant District Attorney Doretta Walker. The party is also backing Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and GOP challenger B.J. Lawson against incumbent U.S. Rep. David Price, D-N.C. In local races, it is backing Republicans Jason Chambers for House 30 and Patricia Ladd for House 31, Roger Atwater for state Senate District 18 and John Tarantino for state Senate District 20. It is also backing Roy G. Taylor for Durham County Sheriff. |
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| abb | Oct 15 2010, 04:17 AM Post #3 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/9918374/article-District-Court--Evans--Black?instance=hs_editorials District Court: Evans, Black The Herald Sun 10.14.10 - 07:56 pm In evaluating District Court judges, experience carried the day. District Court judges conduct probable cause hearings for violent crimes; preside over drug treatment courts, juvenile complaints and domestic violence proceedings; and oversee a wide array of civil cases including divorce and small-claims suits. Experience, a broad knowledge of law and an interest in the clockwork mechanics of very busy courtrooms are critical assets for judges. With those concerns in mind, The Herald-Sun endorses: Pat Evans In April, we endorsed Evans on both her experience -- she has been both the chief prosecutor in District Court and a successful criminal defense attorney -- and her concern for juvenile justice in Durham. "We're not intervening early enough," she told us. "District Court is the gateway to the criminal justice system." Evans believes, and we agree, that it's in District Court, where the judge acts as jury, too, that young offenders can be effectively diverted from a path toward violent crime. We stand by that endorsement in the general election for the seat vacated by Chief District Court Judge Elaine Bushfan; Evans would make a capable and thoughtful jurist whose interest in juveniles is a good fit for the trend of ever-younger defendants in Durham. Freda Black Black, another experienced criminal trial lawyer, is pursuing the seat vacated by Judge Ann McKown. Black is known to the wider world as the assistant prosecutor in the 2003 trial when novelist Michael Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife, Kathleen. In Durham, she is also known from past campaigns; she ran for the district attorney's seat in 2006 and 2008. We support Black for the bench because her strong trial experience should serve her well as a judge. We also appreciate her commitment to domestic violence court and her interest in streamlining the work of her courtroom: "I've always felt judges should work five days a week," she said. "If we use our time wisely, it can work. ... I've never thought anybody needs an hour and a half for lunch." Black said many courts do not begin until 10 a.m. and are closed on Friday afternoons. "Obviously, judges have different personalities," she said. "I've got a type A personality, and judges can say, 'This is how it's going to be run.'" |
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| abb | Oct 15 2010, 04:37 AM Post #4 |
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/q-tim-tyson Q & A with Tim Tyson Author Tim Tyson has protested against the elimination of Wake County’s highly praised busing system, which promoted diversity in schools. By Yeshwanth Kandimalla [4] October 15, 2010 Historian and activist Tim Tyson, senior research scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies, is an outspoken critic of Wake County School Board’s “neighborhood schools” concept, which keeps students closer to home but eliminates the nationally recognized busing policy that promoted diversity in the school system. Discontinuing the busing saves the county money, but critics like Tyson argue the measure will effectively resegregate the schools. Tyson protested against the measure in June at a Wake County School Board meeting and was arrested after refusing to turn over the podium to board members. The Chronicle’s Yeshwanth Kandimalla sat down with Tyson to discuss the implications of the policy and his activism efforts. The Chronicle: You are a strong believer in the value of socioeconomic diversity in schools. Why are you advocating for it so passionately? Timothy Tyson: Studies have shown that poor children in middle-class majority schools learn twice as much and achieve more. It doesn’t hurt middle-class kids, and [middle-class students] get a broader experience. The most important resource for any school is the other children.... Socioeconomic diversity is not a magical answer, but it is an important step.... It’s no coincidence that the 20 most depressed urban areas are also home to the 20 most racially segregated school districts.... It’s not some radical fringe that supports socioeconomic diversity. It’s the radical fringe that has captured the Wake Board of Education. TC: What are the beliefs of the proponents of neighborhood schools? TT: At first, none of these people expressed any concern about poor and minority schoolchildren. Now they say [poor, minority students] don’t perform as well as they should, that the achievement gap is too high and the diversity policy is a failure. First, it’s a lot of phony arithmetic.... Second, the inadequacy of their logic is obvious... Resegregation cannot be presented as a solution to [the achievement gap]. The fact is [that] Wake County, with fairly modest expenditures, has created one of the best urban school systems in the country. TC: What role does politics play in all of this? Is there a partisan element to this opposition? TT: Yes. This movement is frankly the product of conservative Republican hacks. National conservative money has poured into Wake County. We’re talking about Americans for Prosperity, the group that funds the Tea Party. They are just pushing this for partisan political advantage. Obama punched a great big hole in the South when he won North Carolina [in 2008]... and they want their state back. The largest donor to the neighborhood schools movement is Robert Luddy [a businessman and founder of Thales Academy in Wake County]. He is literally invested in the failure of the public schools. At its core it’s an ideological issue, and many in the opposition believe that public education is fundamentally a mistake. TC: Protest has played a major role in your activism. What role does protest play in your ideas about civic engagement? TT: Public discussion is at the heart of a democratic culture, and we’re part of a public discussion about public education. I was born in Raleigh in 1959. My father was a minister, and my mother taught at York Elementary School. My commitment reflects the extent to which my parents fought for integration. Schoolteachers like my mother, both black and white, were where the rubber hit the road when it came to integration. In my first historical research as a scholar, I interviewed dozens of older African-Americans in Raleigh. They had grown up under the bitter oppression of Jim Crow. Thinking about what they had lived through and what they worked for really drives my commitment. TC: What do you think about the status of Durham Public Schools? TT: Durham’s schools are a mixed bag of a cautionary tale and a tribute to persistence. The county resisted integration longer and began the game at a disadvantage. By the time Durham merged city and county schools, the city schools were 91 percent black. Durham isn’t a disaster though—[socioeconomic diversity policy] just wasn’t done as effectively as in Raleigh. Durham has had generations of passionate activists and the civic engagement could hardly be higher. TC: What is basis of the legal challenge mounted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? TT: The North Carolina NAACP filed a Title VI complaint with the [U.S. Department of Justice] for racial discrimination. [Our opponents] claim they haven’t done reassignment based on race. That’s just a lie. They changed the schools of 411 students. Four hundred of them were African-American. The new segregationists are attacking in Charlotte, Wilmington [and] all across the state. I’ll be damned if I stand idly and watch the destruction of what generations of North Carolinians sacrificed to achieve. |
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| abb | Oct 15 2010, 04:38 AM Post #5 |
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke-singled-out-audit-research Duke ‘singled out’ for audit of research By Matthew Chase [4] October 15, 2010 With increased government efforts to monitor federal research projects, the University has been enforcing federal standards more strictly, Arts and Sciences Council members heard Thursday. James Siedow, vice provost for research and professor of biology, emphasized the importance of Duke affiliates’ compliance with federal research standards to avoid University liability. If Duke is found noncompliant with certain regulations, it could be fined millions of dollars, Seidow said. “The federal government that frankly was relatively benign about overseeing all of this in the past has gotten much tougher,” Siedow said. “The reason the [Duke] administration is much more concerned is basically because the feds are breathing down the University’s neck and looking a lot more closely at what we do.” This year will be especially important because Duke has been “singled out” for auditing by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which provides federal funding, Siedow said. Council Chair Ruth Day stressed that although the University is being audited, it is not because there is a “bad signal,” but rather because it was one of the major university recipients of funding. Duke has received more than $200 million in stimulus funds for research and construction from seven federal agencies as of September. Siedow said 84 percent of research funding received by the University comes from federal sources. Siedow added that there were “minimal” reviews of the University’s research before fiscal year 2005, but there have been 10 reviews, audits and reports of the University since then. Programs conducting research will also have to comply with new regulations, Siedow said. For instance, undergraduates who are paid through federal grants to conduct research will have to undergo “responsible conduct of research” training. In other business: Susan Roth, vice provost for interdisciplinary studies, presented the council with an update of interdisciplinary efforts at the University’s institutes and centers, such as the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. Roth said that establishing some educational programs at the school’s institutes is challenging because institutes often compete with academic departments for faculty. Institutes sometimes require specific faculty members from academic departments to teach certain courses, which sometimes conflicts with departmental needs. Dr. Margaret Humphreys, professor of history and associate clinical professor of medicine, said this issue may become harder to address as departments in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences lose faculty members that will not be replaced due to budget cuts. Humphreys added that some members of her department have been “pushed” not to work with institutes because faculty members are needed within the department. As programs within certain institutes increase in popularity, Roth said this issue becomes more widespread. “Filling faculty rosters is a real challenge, and I am hoping we can make some progress there,” she said. Institutes are also disadvantaged because they have no controllable revenue sources and because there are limited resources available for faculty appointments, Roth added. Roth also announced that the Health Policy certificate will end June 2011 because it will be integrated with the Global Health certificate. The Health Policy certificate predated the establishment of the Global Health Institute and the Global Health certificate, and the two programs have “overlapping missions,” Roth said. |
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| abb | Oct 15 2010, 04:39 AM Post #6 |
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/node/153268/talk 3:10 AM October 15, 2010 Fact Checker * reply ✔Fact Checker here. As Executive Vice President Trask revealed in his new Annual Financial Report, the federal government has become the largest single source of support for this private university. As Vice Provost Siedow noted, we get 82 percent of our research dollars from the government. Even if we leave out the massive infusion of dollars into Duke Health, the federal government gives the "educational division" of Duke far more than we collect from tuition, far more than we spend from our endowment. Of course there is going to be oversight. There has to be. Particularly at Duke. Why should our government turn over to a private "non-profit" corporation hundreds of millions of dollars -- to be controlled ultimately by a Board of Trustees that meets behind closed doors and won't even tell us afterward what's been discussed. Duke is no angel. It's had to give back to Medicare and Medicaid millions of dollars because of overcharges. It's had to make adjustments to the hidden extra gift bag that comes with every grant -- a fee for administration and overhead that is secret, but which FC understands is about 25 percent. Not so long ago, Duke was excluded from some federal programs because of continuing failure to comply with financial controls. Not to mention that some of our research is replete with questions. The current probes into Professors Homme Hellinga and Anil Potti alone would justify "breathing down the university's neck." While the Arts and Sciences Council may have been jarred by the prospect of federal snooping, the concept of oversight is as old as this university and it has served us well. James B Duke gave the Trustees of the Duke Endowment oversight powers, and told them to withhold contributions to the university if there were problems. The flow of money never stopped -- but Endowment Trustees and University Trustees sure have had a couple of near misses. FC. |
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| abb | Oct 15 2010, 04:40 AM Post #7 |
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/grad-student-robbed-lasalle-st Grad student robbed on LaSalle St. By Taylor Doherty [4] October 15, 2010 A male graduate student was robbed near LaSalle Street at approximately 10 p.m. Thursday night “very close” to the location of the robbery Wednesday, said Duke Police Chief John Dailey. Including the attempted robbery near Jarvis Dormitory on East Campus Oct. 9, this is the third similar incident in the last week. The student was not seriously hurt and only his cell phone was taken. Dailey said he believes there was no weapon involved. “We’re taking this very seriously,” Dailey said. “We’ve already got a group of administrators coming together tomorrow... to see if there is anything that we might be able to do to assist students that live in that area.” The meeting will include the International House, Parking and Transportation Services and Student Affairs. The Duke University Police Department will also request a coordination meeting with the Durham Police Department, he added. DPD responded to the scene and is investigating the robbery. Despite the similar location, Dailey said it is unlikely the two LaSalle robberies are related. The perpetrator was described as a black, 5-foot-8 male in his 20s with a medium complexion. At the time of the crime, he was wearing a red and white hoodie, Dailey said. The attacker on LaSalle earlier this week was described as a black female wearing a gray hoodie with a pink vertical stripe who allegedly pushed a female student to the ground before stealing her backpack. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta notified the student body of the robbery in an e-mail sent at approximately 11 p.m. DUPD and DPD are currently in discussion about patrol coverage for that area, the e-mail noted. |
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| abb | Oct 15 2010, 04:41 AM Post #8 |
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/node/153282/talk 3:29 AM October 15, 2010 Fact Checker * reply 36 hours ago, when a female student experienced Durham on Duke violence -- pushed to the ground and her backpack stripped from her -- the Chronicle story stated Chief Dailey "is concentrating its patrols in more areas." FC interpreted that to mean he had taken action. It is disconcerting in the least to learn this morning -- after yet another robbery -- that he is going to REQUEST a meeting with the Durham Police to talk about patrols around campus, and that LATER today some administrators will gather. One name is most prominently missing from the list in the Chronicle of gathering administrators: Executive Vice President Trask. Ultimately the responsibility for policing the campus falls under his jurisdiction. FC poses some questions to him, anticipating that he will not answer of course. (He could learn from the chair of the chemistry department who has been responding to student posts in the Chronicle on necessary cutbacks.) 1) Dr Trask, the last we heard, you favored cutting back on uniformed police -- saying there was not need for armed patrols in many instances -- that a security guard hired by the day from an outside contractor would do. Is this still your belief? 2) Dr Trask, is the Duke Police department up to full strength, fully trained in procedures and firearms. Full strength meaning the Clery Act report of 68 state certified Police Officers, 83 Security Officers, 12 Emergency Communications & Records Officers, and 12 civilian support staff. We know police personnel have churned in recent years, including the accelerated retirement of officers with 372 years of experience at Duke whom President Brodhead toasted in a good-bye held at the Nasher. 3) The last Clery Act Report listed seven robberies in calendar 2009. But there were 9 incidents with press releases from Duke Police, with a total of 11 victims, one shot in the gut. Can you explain that? Clery has some fudge words: will you be counting the two LaSalle St crimes in campus statistics, and if not, please explain. 4) Why isn't Duke using advanced police tactics, including security cameras. The license plate of every car entering this campus should be recorded, as a starter. Dr Trask, the space below is available for your answers. If you need help on how the posting system works, I am sure the good chemistry chair will explain. FC |
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| abb | Oct 15 2010, 04:47 AM Post #9 |
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/allusions-lacrosse-case-tired Allusions to lacrosse case tired just a minute By Chris Bassil [3] October 15, 2010 During last week’s MSNBC coverage of the now-infamous Karen Owen PowerPoint presentation, The Today Show sent representatives to East Campus to interview students on the subject. The footage, which aired on the show and can be found easily on Google, clocks in at just over seven minutes long. Most of the segment is spent rehashing what is by now old news concerning Owen, but a 20-second clip toward the beginning is devoted to a retelling of the Duke lacrosse scandal. If this portion of the NBC report feels out of place, it’s because it is. Jeff Rossen, who narrates the piece, brings himself to the subject of the lacrosse case by a feeble segue from the fact that many of Owen’s lovers were lacrosse players. “Most of them were Duke lacrosse players,” he says, “a sensitive issue around here since the Duke lacrosse scandal of 2006.” The only intellectual stimulation Rossen provides with a comment like this one is the inherent difficulty in attempting to identify its most troubling aspect. Honestly, it could be the poor English; was Rossen trying to say that the Duke lacrosse players themselves have been issues since 2006? That doesn’t make any sense. Or, equally nonsensically, might he be suggesting that their relations with Owen have been issues for the past four years? Also ridiculous. In fact, there may not be a single insightful (or comprehensible) way to read that sentence. Let’s infer though, for the sake of the discussion, that he was explaining that the subject of the Duke lacrosse case has been a sensitive one on campus since 2006. This actually reads correctly, but appears to be equally misguided for a separate set of reasons. It’s reasonable to suggest that most people on campus, given the information we have now as well as the passage of time requisite for healing, probably come to similar conclusions regarding the Duke lacrosse case. If they don’t, well, at least you’d never know it, as no one seems to be at anyone else’s throat over it anymore. Furthermore, Rossen’s rebranding of the case as one that’s still acting to create dissonance within the student body is contradictory to the initial media framing of the case as a Duke vs. Durham issue that, in its heat to sell a story, presented two united factions ready to go to war. The notion, then, that the Duke lacrosse case is still divisive within the University, as well as student body, seems to be coming from a place that at best is more than slightly out of touch. Although Jeff Rossen’s sentence construction and mischaracterization of major former University issues are both highly off-putting, the most damningly unfortunate part of his report is that he mentions the lacrosse case at all. In fact, a number of media outlets who reported on Owen almost invariably linked the story with lacrosse, including the venerable New York Times. Though the instances share certain features and as a result might bring one another to mind, it’s not enough to warrant a retelling of an already tired story just for the sake of it. By tying the lacrosse case to any sex or lacrosse related story at Duke, the media keeps that story alive and, in some backwards way, fresh. It’s the news organizations that continue to stimulate any residual sensitivity that exists and then cyclically go on to underline that same sensitivity by highlighting it in tangentially related reports. And it’s not just the recent NBC and New York Times reports either. Those who follow the school’s lacrosse team will recall the national semifinal game last year, in which the Blue Devils played the top-ranked Virginia Cavaliers. The game took place only weeks after Virginia midfielder George Huguely was accused of brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend Yeardley Love, inspiring lengthy discussions between game commentators on the similarities between the Duke and Virginia scandals. Never mind that one case involved the isolated and individual death of a young woman, and the other false allegations of rape that grew to unfairly incriminate an entire team; evidently, the fact that both involved lacrosse teams and some area of law were enough. And after Duke’s national championship victory two days later? Discussion after discussion of vindication for the class of super-seniors, finally successful after having been put to the test all those years ago. None of this is to say that the team, as has been explained on countless occasions, was entirely innocent in its conduct on the night of the alleged incident, and it’s easy from a rational (not to mention cynical) standpoint to see why the case lingers around in the media. However, to continually bring it up in semi-related circumstances cheapens the issues that the case did raise, in addition to visiting an unfair stain upon a team that is at this point in time completely disassociated with the incident. It’s best to remember things like the Duke lacrosse case for their lessons without constantly revitalizing them for their cheap entertainment value. Perhaps we never will hear the end of that story but, if we do, it cannot come soon enough. Chris Bassil is a Trinity junior. His column runs every Friday. |
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| abb | Oct 15 2010, 05:25 AM Post #10 |
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8456485/ UNC faces reputation repair after football scandal Posted: 8:50 p.m. yesterday The University of North Carolina has five fewer men on the roster this season as a result of the ongoing investigation into allegations of agent and academic improprieties. Tailback Ryan Houston was cleared Thursday, but four other players remained sidelined and under scrutiny. Head coach Butch Davis doesn’t know what, if any, sanctions face his program, but he said other schools that have gone through the process could offer a hint. “You can certainly look and draw conclusions from Southern Cal, Alabama or any of the other institutions, whether it's in football, basketball or any of the other sports and kind of get a general idea," he said. He could also look to the other major universities in the Triangle for an idea of the price the scandal will exact on the school’s reputation. Each has learned from a recent experience in crisis management. Duke University dealt with the fallout from accusations of rape against the lacrosse team in 2006. North Carolina State University saw several high profile resignations in 2009 when the details of the hiring of former first lady Mary Easley became public. Both universities faced a tough situation that appeared to get worse with each new revelation, said Rick French, chairman and CEO at French/West/Vaughan, a public relations firm with offices in Raleigh, New York and Tampa, Fla. “The most painful execution is one that comes slowly,” French said. French believes universities often move too slowly to acknowledge mistakes. “They don't tend to handle these situations particularly well. They don't get out ahead of the problem.” French, who advised NFL quarterback Michael Vick during his dog fighting case and Bret Favre about allegations that he sent inappropriate photos to a New York Jets employee, said, “It's pretty simple. Tell the truth.” Holden Thorp, chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill, had to bite that bullet on Aug. 27. He opened a news conference about the allegations of academic infractions on the football team by saying, “To everyone who loves UNC, I'm sorry for what I'm about to say.” As UNC leaders urge patience, French argues allowing information to trickle out only fuels negative stories. “If you go easy on yourself and then it continues to come out, it's a death by a thousand cuts,” French said. He added that UNC should cut down on self-congratulations. Dick Baddour, director of athletics, said at that same news conference, “I just feel good about the academic support program.” UNC President Erskine Bowles has said, “There's nobody prouder of the job we've done since we discovered this.” “When you say, ‘Look at us. Look at what a good job we're doing managing this crisis.’ The question is, how did you allow the crisis to get to that point in the first place,” French asked. Until the full story is told, UNC will keep taking hits. Then, reputation repair can begin. A UNC spokeswoman said Thursday that Thorp and Baddour have been consistently accessible to the media despite constraints because of student privacy laws and the NCAA's decision not to release information. UNC leaders argue they've done everything possible to get information to the public. Reporter: Cullen Browder Photographer: Keith Baker Web Editor: Jodi Leese Glusco |
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| Payback | Oct 20 2010, 05:10 PM Post #11 |
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Fact Checker is the only one riding herd on the Potti scandal? It has dropped out of the Firefox NEWS. Brodhead is happy? |
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| Kerri P. | Oct 20 2010, 05:29 PM Post #12 |
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http://www.wralsportsfan.com/college_basketball/story/8484214/ ACC media names Duke favorite in preseason poll Updated 39 minutes ago It's no secret that defending national champion Duke figures to be very good this season. With the return of seniors Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler and the arrival of uber-talented guard Kyrie Irving, the Blue Devils are a popular pick to start atop the soon-to-be-released college basketball rankings. The ACC media apparently agrees with that line of thinking. Wednesday afternoon Duke was picked to finish first in the conference on 61 of the 62 ballots handed out to the media. North Carolina received the other first-place vote. Virginia Tech was picked to finish second while North Carolina and N.C. State were chosen to finish third and fourth, respectively. Here is how the media at the ACC's Operation Basketball event in Charlotte thought the conference standings would look at the end of the 2010-2011 season. 1. Duke 2. VT 3. UNC 4. N.C. Sate 5. Florida State 6. Maryland 7. Clemson 8. Miami 9. Georgia Tech 10. Boston College 11. Virginia 12. Wake Forest Edited by Kerri P., Oct 20 2010, 05:30 PM.
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