| Blog and Media Roundup - Friday, November 5, 2010; News Roundup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 5 2010, 04:42 AM (246 Views) | |
| abb | Nov 5 2010, 04:42 AM Post #1 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/10170182/article-Defense-argues-Lopez-couldn-t-pick-shooting-suspect-out-of-police-lineup?instance=main_article Defense argues Lopez couldn't pick shooting suspect out of police lineup The Herald Sun 11.04.10 - 10:18 pm By John McCann jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-661 DURHAM -- Eleven uniformed Durham Police Department officers and at least one in plain clothes were in a courtroom Thursday to see what Superior Court Judge Kenneth Titus would do with matters related to two men charged with shooting at their chief. Tony Anthony "Big Red" Person, 27, and Lebron Terrell "Gutta" Brown, 22, each is charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a law-enforcement officer, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and discharging a weapon in an occupied vehicle. On April 29 around 2 p.m., gunfire was exchanged between occupants in a red van and a Hyundai Elantra, Durham County Assistant District Attorney Luke Bumm said. It happened downtown, around South Roxboro and Dillard streets, he said. Chief Jose Lopez was in the area in an unmarked police car and a bullet struck the windshield of that vehicle, the prosecutor said. Lopez wasn't hurt and he doesn't think the shooter realized he was the police chief. But the gunman definitely knew he was shooting at a cop, according to Lopez, who said Brown is the one who shot at him. Brown was represented in court by Durham lawyer Edward Falcone, who wanted his client's bond reduced from $3 million to "somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000." Falcone said Lopez couldn't identify his client in a photo lineup of suspects. After the bond hearing, Lopez said Brown was wearing dreadlocks when he saw him that day in downtown Durham. But while Brown's hair looked different in the photo lineup, you just don't forget the face of someone who shot at you, Lopez explained. Durham lawyer Gladys Harris represented Person. She wanted his bond lowered from $550,000 to $25,000. Harris said her client never was positively identified as it relates to the downtown gunfire exchanged that day. But Bumm, the prosecutor, said the Hyundai driver -- who took a bullet during the gunfire -- told police "Gutta" and "Red" would be in that red van headed to McDougald Terrace, a public-housing community in Durham. The men wound up being arrested in Lynn, Mass. That shows they had some sort of connection, and the two journeying from Durham to Massachusetts demonstrates they are flight risks, Bumm offered. The judge reduced Brown's bond from $3 million to $780,000, and he raised Person's bond from $550,000 to $780,000. Bumm had just told Titus about Person's history of failing to show up for court. Lopez said Titus understands the case is serious and the bonds are reasonable. |
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| abb | Nov 5 2010, 04:43 AM Post #2 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/10168626/article-Victories-bittersweet-for-local-legislators?instance=main_article Victories bittersweet for local legislators The Herald Sun 11.04.10 - 07:08 pm Loss of Assembly control means big changes for Dems By Gregory Childress gchildress@heraldsun.com; 419-6645 CHAPEL HILL -- Democratic lawmakers who represent Orange and Chatham counties more than held their own in Tuesday's seismic election that shifted the balance of power in the state legislature from the Democrats to the Republicans. But those victories by House members Joe Hackney and Bill Faison and state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird were bittersweet coming amid an election that could change the face of North Carolina politics for the next 10 years. "This was huge," said Faison, who won re-election to N.C. House District 50. "If your agenda is one of social progressivism, this is one that has probably tripped you up for the next decade because of redistricting." Faison noted that Republicans, who have not controlled the state Senate for more than a century, will now get the chance to draw district lines for legislative and congressional seats, which could give them a major advantage in future elections. For Hackney, who was re-elected to the N.C. House District 54 seat and is the current Speaker of the House, the loss of Democratic rule in the General Assembly means that he must shift from setting legislative agendas to governing as a member of the minority party. Hackney said he knew there was a possibility the Democrats could lose power in Tuesday's election, but he said Democratic losses do not necessarily mean North Carolina voters were unhappy with the way Democrats governed. Instead, Hackney said he believes his Democratic colleagues who were unseated Tuesday were victims of the national wave of discontent that also gave Republicans control of the U.S. House and helped them gain seats in the Senate. "My perception of it is the voters were mostly trying to send a message to Washington," Hackney said. "I don't think voters were endorsing a Republican agenda necessarily, certainly not in our area." Looking ahead, Hackney said the mission for Democrats will remain the same, even though they are no longer setting the agenda in the General Assembly. A primary focus will be to protect education from draconian cuts. He said Republicans on the campaign trail promised to protect education and not raise taxes. "It isn't possible to do that," Hackney said. Faison said one key change North Carolina residents are likely to see due to the power shift is more legislation favoring big business. He said Republican agendas traditionally are pro-business instead of pro-people. "If someone is going to be sacrificed, it's going to be the people instead of business," Faison said. Meanwhile, Republicans who lost local legislative races on Tuesday found a silver lining in defeat. Ryan Hilliard, who lost to Kinnaird in the Senate District 23 race, claimed a moral victory and said he welcomed the opportunity to get his message out. "I think we gave people a clear choice this time, which they haven't always had," Hilliard said. "I think we accomplished a lot of moral victories that should benefit the conservative movement in the future." Hackney's opponent, Republican Cathy Wright, also said she was disappointed, but believes she ran a good campaign during which a lot of important issues were put on the table. "Folks have been telling me that I helped open their eyes," Wright said. Still, unlike in other parts of the state, and across the nation, the seeds of discontent sowed by Republican candidates simply didn't take root in Chatham and Orange legislative races. "I was running against a well-entrenched legislator in a very liberal district," Wright said. |
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| abb | Nov 5 2010, 04:44 AM Post #3 |
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/10171704/article-Thorp-stands-behind-Coach-Davis?instance=main_article Thorp stands behind Coach Davis The Herald Sun 11.05.10 - 12:07 am UNC chancellor: No evidence of complicity, knowledge of violations By Briana Gorman bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668 CHAPEL HILL -- There is no evidence North Carolina Coach Butch Davis knew about or was involved in any of the agent or academic violations involving the football program Chancellor Holden Thorp said Thursday during a scheduled appearance in front of the Board of Governors Committee on University Governance. Thorp, along with director of athletics Dick Baddour, were at the meeting to give an update on the investigations, and Thorp said the fact-finding portion of the investigations will soon conclude. And while Thorp said there has been no evidence Davis was involved in any of the scandals, there are still questions of why the agent and academic problems were not discovered sooner. "We are all concerned about how it happened, why it happened, why we didn't catch it sooner," Thorp said. "But we don't have any evidence to suggest Coach Davis either knew about or took part in any of the things that went wrong." Thorp said the school has conducted more than 60 interviews, and the NCAA has been on UNC's campus six times, including Wednesday. He said the Secretary of State's Office, which is conducting its own investigation into agents, has visited the campus twice. Thorp also said he's meeting with Baddour and Davis each week to make sure nothing like this happens again, and he once again showed his support for the football coach. "We're not in process of making any decisions about Coach Davis," Thorp said after the meeting. "There could be some new information but we've been looking for a long time and haven't found anything so there's not some big decision process going on that some people think." Thorp said he believes the school is making good progress as just two players -- Michael McAdoo and Devon Ramsay -- are still being withheld. Fourteen players have missed at least one game this season because of the investigations, while seven players are out for the rest of the season. Baddour said he hopes to have a decision on McAdoo and Ramsay by the end of the season and there's indications that will happen. "They're both complicated situations and so while I understand it, it's also frustrating," Baddour said. "But I don't express that frustration to an organization or an individual, it's just frustrating that we can't draw those two to a close." Thorp's presentation also touched on the public records lawsuit the school faces from media members, who are trying to get documents related to the football investigations. He said he was disappointed by the lawsuit and believes the school is abiding by the law. "People have a legitimate interest and curiosity in this and we have a legitimate interest to comply with federal and state laws," Thorp said. |
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| abb | Nov 5 2010, 05:02 AM Post #4 |
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/social-groups-must-change-social-culture Social groups must change social culture By Editorial Board [3] November 5, 2010 E-mail invitations to Halloween-themed fraternity parties were found printed out and posted on fliers across campus Sunday morning, sparking a debate about gender issues and Duke’s social scene. Fraternities typically utilize blast e-mails or “social listservs” to invite women to their parties. Invites are intended to be satirical but they often include sexist jokes that refer to women as “sluts” or worse. The two e-mails plastered across campus were invitations to late-night after-parties hosted by Sigma Nu fraternity and the off-campus, unrecognized Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. Women who receive invitations like these on a regular basis—generally members of sororities—recognize their misogynistic and offensive tone as commonplace, driven by fraternities’ attempts to continually push the envelope and one-up each other. Perhaps the largest campus cultural problem at stake is the fact that so many women say they have become desensitized to this type of unacceptable dialogue. “This is the kind of thing I’ve come to expect from fraternities. In my heart, I know it’s a problem but I’ve really gotten used to it,” senior Emily Fausch, secretary of Delta Delta Delta sorority told The Chronicle this week. We commend the anonymous individuals who posted these fliers across campus for their bold action in exposing an offensive practice that has become all too familiar to greek women. It is reasonable that individual students should wish to remain anonymous when speaking out against such a social status quo. They could risk isolating members of their friend groups by undertaking a solitary effort. Organizations themselves, however, are obligated to act in a way that shatters this collective action failure. Specifically, the Interfraternity Council should punish its member groups when they act in a misogynistic or derogatory way toward women. The Panhellenic Association, the largest women’s membership group on campus, should make every effort to ensure that its sororities maintain a unified front against invitations and actions that are degrading. E-mail invitations such as those posted across campus last weekend are nearly impossible to regulate, and thus we believe a direct response from the University administration to be unnecessary at this point. But greeks should recognize that this problem transcends their own community. Due to its housing and organizational advantages, the greek community occupies a position of social dominance on campus that amplifies the impact of an event like this. All Duke women have a right to be outraged by these e-mails. IFC and Panhel must employ a strong, visible response to reassure every student who participates in the undergraduate social scene that offensive and sexist language is not part of the Duke culture. Fraternities’ crude custom of e-mailing sexist invitations to women on campus has existed for far too long. Given this fact, the bold action of anonymous individuals to bring these e-mails to light during Halloween weekend is a positive development for Duke’s campus culture and gender relations problems. Panhel, IFC, individual chapters and all social groups on campus should carry this momentum forward by actively fostering a social environment in which sexism and male dominance are not part of the equation. Individuals exposed this problem, now social groups must work toward its solution. |
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| abb | Nov 5 2010, 05:03 AM Post #5 |
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/importance-communication The importance of communication By The Greek Woman's Initiative November 5, 2010 The Greek Women’s Initiative is a proactive group of men and women who intend to empower greek women, initiate dialogue and propose solutions to the dilemmas men and women face at Duke University. We would like to address the e-mails that were posted around campus this weekend. We believe that this is an issue not of a single fraternity or of fraternities in general, but rather a problem with campus culture. This problem cannot and will not be addressed without open communication among the greek community and a sincere effort by all members to confront the issues in the gender culture. Therefore, the Greek Women’s Initiative has recruited and received volunteers from almost every chapter in each of the four greek governing councils on campus to serve as facilitators for conversations about gender issues within their chapters. These facilitators, after having been trained by the Center for Race Relations, will report the issues discussed in their individual chapters back to the Greek Women’s Initiative. We represent all chapters and councils because we believe that only through numerous and varied opinions across the entire Greek community can we find a workable solutions to the issues this community faces. We recognize that these recent e-mails are a symptom of a greater problem. The Greek Women’s Initiative intends to use the response to these e-mails as an opportunity to start dialogue about gender issues at Duke. Our efforts are about conversations, not accusations. |
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| abb | Nov 5 2010, 05:07 AM Post #6 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/11/05/782134/bond-terms-change-in-police-chiefs.html Published Fri, Nov 05, 2010 02:00 AM Modified Fri, Nov 05, 2010 12:18 AM Bond terms change in police chief's scare DURHAM Surrounded by half a dozen of his officers, Police Chief Jose Lopez Sr. sat in the front row Thursday as a judge reviewed the bond keeping the men accused of shooting at Lopez in jail. Tony "Big Red" Person, 27, and Lebron "Gutta" Brown, 22, face charges of shooting at an officer and discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle. Police say the occupants of two vehicles were shooting at each other as they drove down South Roxboro near Dillard Street about 2 p.m. April 29 when one of the drivers was wounded. As one of the vehicles turned onto Dillard Street, someone in the vehicle with the injured shooter fired a shot at Lopez's unmarked cruiser as the chief waited to turn left onto South Roxboro. The bullet damaged the vehicle's front windshield, but Lopez wasn't injured. "He was shooting at me," Lopez said after the hearing. "We locked eyes. When someone shoots at you, and you see them in person, you know who they are." Superior Court Judge Ken Titus lowered the bond for Brown, whom Lopez named as the shooter, from $3 million to $780,000 because of his minor criminal record and history of showing up at court dates. Person, on the other hand, had his bond raised from $550,000 to $780,000 because of Person's failure to follow previous release conditions. "He doesn't respond well to supervision," Titus said. Lopez called the bond levels reasonable. "I think [the judge] recognized the severity of the case," he said. jesse.deconto@newsobserver.com or 919-932-8760 |
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| abb | Nov 5 2010, 05:35 AM Post #7 |
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http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/11/jailing_of_danziger_bridge_def.html Jailing of Danziger Bridge defendants is appropriate, federal judge rules Published: Friday, November 05, 2010, 5:00 AM Laura Maggi, The Times-Picayune A federal magistrate judge properly decided that New Orleans police officer defendants should be jailed while awaiting trial in the Danziger Bridge shooting case, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ruled this week. Lance Madison was arrested Sept. 4, 2005, after an incident involving police on Chef Menteur Highway at the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Two people died and four others were wounded. Pretrial detention is appropriate because the four officers are accused of using guns while committing a crime, he found. Federal statutes that govern bail eligibility say that people accused of gun-related crimes are presumed to be both "a flight risk and a danger to the community," Engelhardt wrote in a brief order signed Tuesday. The defendants failed to overcome the presumption, he determined. Four officers are accused in shootings that led to the death of two men and wounding of four other people, as well as participating in the cover-up of the incident. The shootings occurred Sept. 4, 2005, less than a week after Hurricane Katrina. Two other officers -- both New Orleans homicide investigators at the time -- are charged solely in the alleged cover-up. They were given bond and released pending trial. Five former officers have pleaded guilty to charges related to the alleged cover-up and are to testify against their colleagues at trial. Earlier this year, U.S. Magistrate Judge Louis Moore agreed with federal prosecutors that the four officers involved in the shootings themselves needed to be incarcerated before trial. Defense attorneys objected to Moore's detention order and asked that Engelhardt review the magistrate's decision. They argued that the officers aren't a flight risk or a danger to the community, pointing to their community ties. Attorneys also noted that the officers repeatedly showed up for court during a state court case that was eventually dismissed. Engelhardt noted in his order that he understands that pretrial detention is a hardship for the defendants. If prosecutors and defense attorneys believe that trial preparation can be done before the scheduled trial date of June 13, 2011, the judge said he would be willing to hold the trial sooner. Laura Maggi can be reached at lmaggi@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3316. |
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| Quasimodo | Nov 5 2010, 08:39 AM Post #8 |
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And how many interviews did Duke conduct before it fired Pressler? |
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