| Blog and Media Roundup - Monday, Nev 24, 2008; News Roundup | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 24 2008, 05:34 AM (200 Views) | |
| abb | Nov 24 2008, 05:34 AM Post #1 |
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/hsletters/ Double standard? Councilman Howard Clements, Police Chief Jose Lopez, Councilman Gene Brown and City Manager Tom Bonfield want answers about two policemen who made racially derogatory remarks on a Web site. I have been wanting answers about councilwoman Cora Cole-McFadden who made racial remarks that cost a man his livelihood, and the City of Durham $150,000, for over six months. Seems to me that we have two sets of standards here in Durham. Brown said, " All of us understand the law must be followed, due process and all that." Why hasn't the law been followed on her? If she can make racially derogatory remarks and not be punished, how can you punish someone else? TED RILEY Durham November 24, 2008 |
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| Quasimodo | Nov 24 2008, 07:22 AM Post #2 |
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http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/ Monday, November 24, 2008 Amazing For those who thought that nothing left in the case could shock them, guess again. The Charlotte Observer revealed that Board of Trustees chairman Bob Steel has become a . . . movie investor. (Steel, of course, has additional time on his hands, having presided over the collapse of Wachovia.) That’s the same Bob Steel who: * privately claimed that something “terrible, terrible” happened in the lacrosse captains’ house; * misled other trustees into believing that the administration had stayed in close contact with the families of the three falsely accused players; * maintained his position as BOT chairman despite an apparent conflict of interest; * said that the Trustees had approved of Richard Brodhead’s “principles that he established and the actions he took,” including the president’s indefensible statement that a trial would allow “our students to be proved innocent.” According to financial disclosure forms required from Steel’s tenure at the Treasury Department, Steel invested between $1 million and $5 million in a movie based on a book penned by a Duke faculty member. The faculty member? Tim Tyson. That’s the same Tim Tyson who: * in seeming violation of the Faculty Handbook, participated “as a teacher” in a “candlelight vigil” outside the lacrosse captains’ house; * suggested that that Duke students refusing to speak to Sgt. Mark Gottlieb without presence of their attorneys “may be illegal”; * wildly claimed that Duke students embodied “the spirit of the lynch mob”; * blamed society for Crystal Mangum’s conduct. And then, when the case upon which he had based his calumnies utterly collapsed, Tyson proclaimed that he would “stand by” everything he said, and that he had articulated a “reasonably thoughtful stance(!!)” on the case. That’s the faculty member whose work product has benefited from a huge investment the chairman of the Duke BOT? Will we next hear that Steel has doubled down, and donated to the Mike Nifong legal defense fund? |
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| abb | Nov 24 2008, 07:31 AM Post #3 |
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http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2008/11/24/News/Trinity.Trims.School.Budget-3559793.shtml Trinity trims school budget Admins hope to save money with targeted recruitment By: Chelsea Allison Posted: 11/24/08 Christmas hasn't been canceled, but the recent economic downturn will ensure that the typically festive faculty holiday bash is comparatively ho-hum. The University has largely avoided adopting spending limits on the order of several peers, some of which have reported losses equal to Duke's total endowment. But that's not to say Trinity College of Arts and Sciences has not taken measures to help account for economic strain. "I can't assure you we're going to get through this unscathed," Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said. "[But] it would have been premature for us... to start announcing [cuts]." Though unrelated to the current crisis, Arts and Sciences has reduced faculty hiring searches for the year by nearly a third, which Provost Peter Lange attributed to striking a balance with the successes of years past. Searches cost approximately $100,000 each, which means this conservative measure could save the school around $1 million this year. Just two weeks ago, George McLendon, dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences and dean of Trinity College, announced in an e-mail to department chairs that central administration would attempt to absorb the effects of the financial crisis. He noted that it would freeze all non-academic faculty appointments, and encouraged chairs to think creatively about saving money, asking them to consider how they might go about a hypothetical 5 percent cut in non-personnel costs. McLendon told the Arts and Sciences Council Nov. 14 that he had saved approximately 10 percent of his budget by postponing the start $1 million in capital projects and filling $500,000 in administrative vacancies. Still, administrators said they are waiting till the dust-and the Dow-settles. "We're going to have to figure out what are the most important things we have to do, and that will have to require probably more self-conscious attention to exactly what our priorities are," Lange said. Trimming searches and spending This past Spring, departments submitted 75 requests to begin faculty searches, which McLendon and others winnowed to a crop of 22. Typically, at least 30 are approved, and McLendon said he did not foresee that the searches already underway would be halted. Some departments, like philosophy, were told that searches to fill vacancies should be stalled, with the assurance that those requests would be at the top of the queue during the next round, said department chair Tad Schmaltz. "[A hiring freeze] sounded to us like a really bad strategy, because every year there is remarkable talent on the horizon," McLendon said. Instead, McLendon said, the University will "turn the thermostat down a couple of degrees," and perhaps decorate the holiday tree less lavishly in order to trim the budget. "It'll be lots of little things like that-a few thousand here and a few thousand there," he said. This sort of corner-cutting does not impinge upon the priorities of a department, like teaching and research, several chairs said. "The dean and the provost, they're not panicking," said Michael Munger, chair of the political science department. "They're bearing the brunt of it and boy, that really helps a lot." Many departments are also cushioned-and perhaps contented-by a particularly robust recruiting class last year, when approximately 50 faculty joined the University's ranks. It's unclear, however, whether such success could have deepened predicted deficits-the inheritance of an Arts and Sciences faculty and a campus that grew especially fast in the early 2000s. In 2002, the Arts and Sciences Council convened a budget committee, anticipating that the school could run up to a $6 million deficit in fiscal years 2006 and 2007. The problems that led to that deficit, however-like funding the French Family Science Center and the Nasher Museum of Art-have been accounted for, Trask said, and Trinity avoided enacting the committee's worst-case-scenario recommendations. Instead, revenues are down, the result of a slowing in gifts. "[Arts and Sciences'] problem was dealt with, and it's sort of come back in a different form," he said. Stacking the staff The approximately 600-strong school sheds about 30 faculty per year, part of what McLendon called "healthy" turnover. Although not all those positions will be replaced, McLendon said he suspects that fewer places competing for the same person may enable the University to attract top-notch recruits. "We're in a position to make fewer targeted investments, but the ones we get will be truly fantastic," McLendon said. He did not name specific people the University may have its eye on, but noted that the University may also look to improve faculty diversity. In 2007, 30 percent of Arts and Sciences faculty were women and 19 percent were minorities, according to the school's Web site. "I know for some of the places that have said [its] situation is extraordinarily dire, then say you're a wonderful young scholar at that institution," McLendon said. "They may say, 'Wow this place seems really depressing, and Duke seems much more optimistic about the future and I have a long future.'" Final approval of the suite of hires comes by the provost's pen, and Lange also has a discretionary fund that could bridge support for a position for one to two years until it is built into the budget. He noted that additional opportunities-three to four-are also accounted for in order to capitalize on strategic hires if and when they arise. Preserving the present Every year, other institutions attempt to lure faculty from their posts. "[Less-reputable schools] honestly don't succeed very often unless we think it's an opportunity to improve both institutions simultaneously," McLendon said. He noted that he did not know whether retention would be more or less problematic this year than others for competition from institutions like Harvard University and Princeton University. Duke will be committed, then, to keeping its faculty happy, in good company and duly compensated. In fiscal year 2008, salaries and benefits totaled $1.1 billion-an 8 percent increase over the previous year, likely due to faculty additions in Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine, according to Financial Statements 2007/2008. "I don't foresee any faculty salary freezes," McLendon said. The average salary increase, however, might be small. The University considers cost-of-living expenses in its salary allocations, and during recessions, such costs tend to go down. Trask said it is unlikely salaries would go up by much, if at all. The average Duke professor made $152,600 in 2008, compared to $142,000 the year before, according to the American Association of University Professors Faculty Salary Surveys. In 2007, according to the University's Form 990, three of Duke's top-five highest paid officials were coaches, with men's basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski earning $2.2 million. President Richard Brodhead took $628,108 home to Hart House, well above the 2006-2007 median compensation of presidents of private research universities, at $527,172, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. McLendon said tenure-track faculty will not be affected. "There is zero chance that in any scenario I can imagine... where a promotion decision will be based on finances-that's inconceivable to me," McLendon said. As the University weighs its academic priorities, Lange said its first commitment will be to sustaining momentum. "We will be continuing to hire really outstanding faculty without damaging the ability of faculty already here," Lange said. Strategic planning "We have some tensions in [the] budget that I believe we're going to be able to handle," Trask said. "But if the markets don't turn soon, it's going to be a difficult [fiscal year 2010] and more difficult [fiscal year 2011]." McLendon said Arts and Sciences ran only a small deficit this year, about 0.5 percent depending on final numbers. He said that in setting next year's budget, they will build in a small surplus to begin accumulating reserves. This strategy implies prudent recruiting and budget analysis that revisits all expenditures. McLendon did not rule out forming a committee to review budgets, but said such a decision would be made after reviewing final gift figures and endowment performance in January. "DUMAC's management has done incredibly well (I really am baffled sometimes at how well they do)-but in a market like this, there are limits to what even DUMAC's management can pull off," economics department Chair Thomas Nechyba wrote in an e-mail. "And if those losses continue over some time, then eventually I do expect more belt-tightening." Administrators said the success of the $300-million Financial Aid Initiative would alleviate some funding pressures among the University's priorities. "All things compete for the same dollars unless those dollars are specifically endowed for that purpose," McLendon said. "The reason [we] put such a high priority on financial aid endowments is the understanding that someday there would be a day like now." |
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| Quasimodo | Nov 24 2008, 08:03 AM Post #4 |
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Picky, but after the NC state library issue, I have to wonder if this is really a "Christmas" tree in disguise, or just sloppy writing by the reporter... |
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| ~J~ is in Wonderland | Nov 24 2008, 08:33 AM Post #5 |
~J~ is in Wonderland
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1027846.cfm? Rhodes Scholars from Duke, UNC A recent Duke graduate and a UNC student were one of 32 named Rhodes Scholars for 2009. Julia Parker Goyer, a 2007 graduate of Duke and a member of the varsity tennis team, said she hopes to build on a program she started that sent 10 athletes from Duke and 10 from UNC to rural Vietnam this summer to conduct sports clinics and work with Vietnamese high school and college athletes. Aisha Ihab Saad of Cary plans to take advantage of her Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford to seek a master's degree in nature, society and environmental policy. The Morehead-Cain Scholar at UNC said she hopes for a career in environmental law. "I plan to focus on fragmentation in international environmental law, toward shaping comprehensive legal structures that protect equitable resource allocation and development on a global scale," Saad said in a press release. Parker Goyer, a 23-year-old native of Birmingham, Ala., will study international comparative education at Oxford. She said the inspiration for the Coach for College program came from trips to Belize and Vietnam in summer 2007. She saw a lack of role models and of sports and education infrastructure in rural communities. She brought the Coach for College idea to Duke administrators in January and received $130,000 to pursue the project. Parker Goyer, a Roberston Scholar from Duke, also got another $68,000 from UNC for the project, and the NCAA contributed $10,000 more. The Robertson Scholars program, which provides full tuition for about 36 students from Duke and UNC each year, aims to promote a sense of community between the two universities. Student-athletes, she said in an interview with Duke Magazine, develop traits such as perseverance, hard work, time management and adherence to goals that they should be encouraged to apply off the field as well. Parker Goyer is now enrolled in the doctoral program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She will take a leave of absence to pursue her Rhodes Scholarship. Saad is a native of Cairo who emigrated to the United States when she was 6. She has published articles in two major medical and health care journals, and interned in the blood diseases ward at Cairo University's teaching hospitals and with the Peruvian Ministry of Health. Saad is the 42nd Rhodes Scholar from Carolina since the first awards were made in 1904. "Aisha embodies everything we want a Carolina education to be: great academic accomplishment, sophisticated understanding of the world and its problems and an unwavering commitment to addressing the great challenges," said Chancellor Holden Thorp. Parker Goyer is the 42nd Rhodes Scholar from Duke. "Duke is proud of the outstanding talent of our students," said Duke President Richard H. Brodhead, "and we are especially proud when one is honored in this way. Parker Goyer has been a top student-athlete and a pioneer in global service learning. It's wonderfully fitting that she has been chosen for a Rhodes." |
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| ~J~ is in Wonderland | Nov 24 2008, 08:37 AM Post #6 |
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~J~ is in Wonderland
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/durham/4-1027838.cfm? Changes afoot at N.C. Central radio station Change is in the air at WNCU-FM, N.C. Central University's public radio station. According to NCCU's Web site, Edith Thorpe is no longer the station's general manager and program director. Thorpe, a former general manager and development director for WRVS-FM in Elizabeth City who was hired by NCCU in February 2001, is now listed on the site as a special assistant to WNCU-FM. She will work on special projects for the station, according to the Web site. The station's assistant general manager, Lackisha Sykes, is now listed as acting general manager for the station. Sykes is a graduate of NCCU's School of Law. Citing personnel privacy concerns, NCCU officials declined comment about what led to the change in leadership at the radio station. Officials did say a permanent general manager is expected to be named in mid- to late-2009. In her role as assistant general manager, Sykes ensures that WNCU is compliant with FCC rules and regulations and proofs and manages all WNCU contracts. One other notable change noted in a press release from the radio station announcing a live holiday jazz broadcast at NCCU's B.N. Duke Auditorium on Dec. 5, is the promotion of B.H. Hudson to program director. "This is only the beginning of our efforts to expand the possibilities for the jazz community," Hudson said of the Dec. 5 event. Hudson has worked for WNCU since it first signed on the air in 1995. She was formerly music director and assistant program director. Hudson is also host of "Morning Jazz," a show of mainstream jazz, mixed with Latin and blues tunes. Thorpe worked at WRVS-FM in Elizabeth City for 13 years. She also served for more than 11 years as the radio station's administrator for grant awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Title III and the Public Telecommunications Facility Project. Thorpe, who has more than 30 years of experience in public radio, earned a bachelor's degree in radio, television and film from Shaw University in 1981. She began her career in radio there as a freshman broadcaster at WSHA, the university's public radio station. Thorpe also earned a master's degree in mass communications from Norfolk State University. |
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| abb | Nov 24 2008, 10:29 AM Post #7 |
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http://www.charlotteobserver.com/nation/story/367286.html US judge who gave to Obama won't be disciplined By PAUL FOY Associated Press Writer Posted: Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008 SALT LAKE CITY Utah's chief federal judge will not be disciplined for donating money to Barack Obama's campaign. Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert Henry cleared U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell in a decision posted last week. He did say the donation was unethical but noted that Campbell had promised no similar donations in the future. The Federal Elections Commission says Campbell made the $100 contribution to the Obama campaign in August 2007. Campbell had earlier said she thought she was prohibited only from taking "public action" supporting a candidate, not from making private contributions. She did not immediately respond to a message Thursday seeking comment. |
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| ~J~ is in Wonderland | Nov 24 2008, 08:02 PM Post #8 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1307836.html Fox's Hannity losing liberal half NEW YORK - Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity is losing his liberal half. Alan Colmes of the network's "Hannity & Colmes" said on his Web site today that he'll be leaving the prime-time show after 12 years. He said he approached a network executive earlier this year about doing something else. Colmes will continue as a liberal commentator on Fox programs, keep doing his own radio show and is developing a weekend show at Fox News. There was no immediate word about whether he will be replaced on the popular prime-time program. Hannity has been the bigger star in media circles and recently signed a contract extension. Hannity also does his own solo weekend show at Fox. |
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| ~J~ is in Wonderland | Nov 24 2008, 08:04 PM Post #9 |
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http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1307811.html Longtime Biden aide picked to fill his Senate seat WILMINGTON, Del. - Edward "Ted" Kaufman, a former aide to Sen. Joe Biden, was named Monday by Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner to fill the Senate seat Biden is leaving for the vice presidency. Kaufman, co-chair of Biden's transition team and an Obama-Biden transition project advisory board member, plans to serve until the 2010 election, when a new senator is elected. He said he is comfortable stepping down after two years in office. "I don't think Delaware's appointed senator should spend the next two years running for office," Kaufman said. "I will do this job to the fullest of my ability, and spend my days focused on one thing and one thing only: serving Delaware." Speculation on Biden's successor had centered in recent weeks on his son, Attorney General Beau Biden. But last week the younger Biden announced that he planned to fulfill his National Guard duties and wouldn't accept an appointment to his father's U.S. Senate seat. Biden is a prosecutor for the 261st Signal Brigade, which left for Iraq last week. The unit is due back in September 2009, in time for Biden to run for his father's Senate seat. The elder Biden said in a statement, "It is no secret that I believe my son, Attorney General Beau Biden, would make a great United States Senator just as I believe he has been a great attorney general. But Beau has made it clear from the moment he entered public life that any office he sought he would earn on his own." Just before announcing Kaufman as the appointee, Minner acknowledged speculation about the younger Biden being picked for the post and said she would have strongly considered him. "The fact that Beau Biden is committed to fulfilling his obligation and not seeking appointment to this office tells us everything we need to know about his character," she said. "Should Beau choose to run for this office in 2010, he will - as will whoever runs - have to earn on his own the trust of the people of Delaware." Minner said she thought Kaufman was the best qualified candidate and she also looked for an appointee whose political views were close to the Biden's. Kaufman said he couldn't think of anything he and Biden disagreed on and he was impressed by that even back in 1972 when Biden was first running for office. "I was struck by how many things he believed that I also believed," he said. However, Kaufman's experience in Washington will differ from Biden's in one respect. He does plan to spend time in Delaware, but he and his wife will get a home in Washington, unlike Biden, who rode Amtrak between Washington and Wilmington. Biden will be sworn in on Jan. 6, but in mid-January he will step down and Kaufman will be sworn in, Kaufman said. Kaufman held a senior position in all of Biden's federal campaigns. He served on Biden's Senate staff from 1973 to 1994, including 19 years as chief of staff. He is a senior lecturing fellow at Duke University and has served by presidential appointment since 1995 as a charter member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. He also heads a political and management consulting firm based in Wilmington, Del., and previously worked for the DuPont Co. |
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| Kerri P. | Nov 24 2008, 09:52 PM Post #10 |
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http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/4022782/ Man pleads guilty to breaking into home, assaulting woman Posted: Today at 7:36 p.m. Updated: 32 minutes ago Jacksonville, N.C. — A Jacksonville man on Friday pleaded guilty to breaking into a woman's home in Onslow County and then assaulting her. Leonel Saballos, 35, of Broken Oak Court, received a suspended 75 day sentence and 12 months probation for misdemeanor breaking-and-entering and assault on a female. Superior Court Judge Gary E. Trawick ordered Saballos not to have contact with the victim or her family and not to drink alcohol for 12 months. Onslow County sheriff's deputies arrested Saballos on charges of first-degree burglary and second-degree sexual offense for the Sept. 2, 2007, incident. However, Assistant District Attorney Kelly B. Neal determined that there was insufficient evidence to prove those charges beyond a reasonable doubt. "The victim provided inconsistent statements to the investigators as to whether there had been any penetration," Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson said in a statement. "In one statement, she said there was slight penetration. In another statement, she said that there was no penetration." Under state law, a conviction for sexual offense requires prosecutors to prove that penetration occurred. Burglary requires prosecutors to prove the defendant entered a house with the intent to commit a felony. snip... Edited by Kerri P., Nov 24 2008, 09:53 PM.
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| Kerri P. | Nov 24 2008, 09:55 PM Post #11 |
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http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/4022152/ Woman gets probation in UNC football players' assault Posted: Today at 5:55 p.m. Updated: Today at 6:11 p.m. Hillsborough, N.C. — A woman pleaded guilty Monday to resisting arrest in a case in which three University of North Carolina football players were tied up and robbed last year. Tnikia Monta Washington, 30, was given a suspended sentence and was placed on supervised probation. The charge stemmed from a Dec. 16, 2007, incident in which a UNC player invited Michael Troy Lewis and two women to a Chapel Hill apartment after the player had been drinking for the night. At the apartment, the player and two teammates were tied up with belts, ties and stereo speaker wires while Lewis robbed the apartment. snip... |
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1:31 PM Nov 26
