Joe Schwartz ·
8 Feb 2010, 11:55 AM ·
Comment
Carlo Robustelli, former aide to Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy, has been named director of Orange County operations for Durham Technical Community College.
We profiled a Robustelli in December, when he concluded two and a half years in the Chapel Hill mayor’s office as Foy opted against running for re-election.
Robustelli, who took classes at Durham Tech and transferred the credits to UNC, now is charged with running student services, recruitment and overseeing daily operations for the Orange County campus.
“I am delighted that Carlo Robustelli has joined us,” Durham Tech President Bill Ingram said in a press release. “He is uniquely qualified to help us strengthen and sustain Durham Tech’s programs and services in Orange County.”
Chapel Hill, Durham, Orange County, education Bill Ingram, Carlo Robustelli, Durham Technical Community College, Kevin Foy
Joe Schwartz ·
4 Feb 2010, 1:06 PM ·
1 Comment
Gov. Bev Perdue was beaming when she signed the state’s ban on smoking in bars and restaurants into law in March, saying they’d tackled the “big enchilada” after restricting smoking on college campuses and in the legislature.
“This is really in no exaggeration of the word an absolutely historic day for this great state that was built initially on the backbone of tobacco,” Perdue said among a group of health advocates and lawmakers.
“My hat is off to the General Assembly. I have never been as proud of a body in my entire life.”
Her tone also was congratulatory today as she celebrated a $6.7 million expansion of a tobacco manufacturing company in Rockingham County that will create 35 jobs.
“North Carolina is a great location for international companies looking to expand,” she said in a press release. “Our top business climate and our tremendous workforce continues to be very attractive to growing companies.”
That’s the message. Welcome, thanks for your tax money and your jobs. Don’t even think about bringing your products to lunch with you, though.
Kentucky-based Commonwealth Brands Inc. already owns a tobacco plant in Reidsville where 224 people work, and this addition will allow them to manufacture a new line of cigarette tubes.
North Carolina, business, economy, politics Bev Perdue, Commonwealth Brands, job creation, Reidsville, Rockingham County, smoking ban, tobacco
Lisa Sorg ·
4 Feb 2010, 12:43 PM ·
1 Comment
The local youth media project, Northeast Central Durham Community VOICE, is publishing its first print edition this month—and is moving into its new digs at Golden Belt, 807 E. Main St., in Durham.
Scientific Properties is donating space in Building 4 to the publication, which is sponsored by journalism programs at UNC and N.C. Central University. (Disclosure: The Indy leases space in the Venable Building from Scientific Properties.)
VOICE went online in Septmeber at durhamvoice.org. It is holding a general meeting Saturday, Feb. 11, from 10-11 a.m. in its newsroom at Golden Belt for area youth interested in writing, photography, video, blogging, art or journalism.
For more information on the NECD Community VOICE, contact Jock Lauterer at jock@email.unc.edu, Bruce dePyssler at bdepyssler@nccu.edu, or Lisa Paulin at lpaulin@nccu.edu.
Read the full press release here (36kb, Microsoft Word): necdnewsroom2010
Durham, media, news Golden Belt, NECD Community VOICE, Scientific Properties
Joe Schwartz ·
3 Feb 2010, 6:26 PM ·
Comment
Durham’s El Centro Hispano announced plans today to open an Orange County branch, which would fill the gap left when El Centro Latino shut its doors in November.
Leadership from both nonprofits will host a public meeting at 7 p.m. Feb. 16 in the Seymour Center auditorium in Chapel Hill to garner input on the collaborative effort.
Pilar Rocha-Goldberg, executive director of El Centro Hispano, said her organization is ready and willing to provide much-needed translating, English lessons and job finding services for Orange County’s Spanish-speaking community.
“We are confident that the structure we have here will allow us to give good service to the community,” she said.
El Centro Latino closed after a 10-year run as a nonprofit due to a lack of funding and constant turnover of its leadership.
Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham, Orange County El Centro Hispano, El Centro Latino, Orange County, Pilar Rocha-Goldberg, Seymour Center
Joe Schwartz ·
2 Feb 2010, 4:47 PM ·
Comment
James Hansen, one of the nation’s leading experts on global warming, joined a group of UNC students today in calling for the university to become coal-free.
Standing in front of UNC’s Cogeneration Facility, which powers the campus, about 20 students held signs encouraging Chancellor Holden Thorp to “be a climate champ.”
They were joined by Professor Jose Rial, a UNC glaciologist, Patricia Leighten, a Westwood neighborhood resident who lives about a quarter-mile from the plant, a handful of Sierra Club members and Carrboro Alderman Sammy Slade.
The speakers praised Thorp’s creation of an Energy Task Force and said it provides an opportunity for UNC to become a national leader in renewable and clean energy.
“The best way for the Energy Task Force to address energy use on campus is to get UNC off of coal as quickly as possible,” said Stewart Boss, a freshman and media outreach coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Coal-Free UNC Campaign. “Coal is the dirtiest possible energy source we could be using today.”
Continue reading »
Chapel Hill, Orange County, environment Coal-Free UNC Campaign, Cogeneration Facility, Holden Thorp, James Hansen, Jose Rial, Sammy Slade, Sierra Club, UNC
Samiha Khanna ·
1 Feb 2010, 9:43 PM ·
Comment
After a nearly five-year investigation, Durham police have charged Raven Abaroa, 30, with the 2005 stabbing death of his wife Janet in their Durham rental home. Janet Abaroa, who was 25 at the time, was pregnant with the couple’s second child when she was killed April 26, 2005.
According to a Durham police news release, Raven Abaroa was arrested at his Montpelier, Idaho, home without incident. He is being held in the Caribou County, Idaho, jail and is awaiting extradition to North Carolina.
Raven Abaroa, who was married to the victim for almost five years, has long been a “person of interest” in the case, but police continued their investigation. At the time of Janet Abaroa’s murder, Raven Abaroa said he had driven from Durham to Morrisville, N.C., to play in a soccer game. He said when he returned home at 11 p.m., he found his wife and she was dead. Their then-6-month-old son, Kaiden, was also inside the home but wasn’t harmed in the attack.
Continue reading »
Durham, Durham County, North Carolina, national, news domestic violence, Durham, Durham Police, Janet Abaroa, murder, Raven Abaroa
Samiha Khanna ·
1 Feb 2010, 8:40 PM ·
Comment
In his annual “State of the City” address, Bill Bell highlighted several of the same issues that were of top concern in last year’s update: transportation, jobs and crime reduction.
Bell highlighted declines in property and violent crime, efforts to make local transportation easier and more accessible–including the possibility of fare-free ridership–and what the city has done in the past year to improve the city’s 7-percent unemployment rate.
In his 28-minute speech, Bell also noted that as the city begins what many hope will be a year of economic recovery for Durham and the nation, this year’s budget process could be as challenging as last year’s. With revenue from the sales and occupancy taxes, as well as revenue from development permits and fees, on the decline, the city will face about a $15 million gap when the administration comes together this spring to examine the budget, Bell said.
“As with your household budget, when you spend more than you bring home, the city’s options are quite limited,” Bell told an audience at Durham City Hall. “The solution will be either a change in services, reduction in spending and services, or some type of revenue increases.”
Continue reading »
Durham, Durham County, news, politics Bill Bell, City of Durham, Durham City Council, Durham politics, economy, environment, jobs, unemployment
Samiha Khanna ·
28 Jan 2010, 7:38 PM ·
Comment
A former Durham police officer and former UNC football standout has been indicted on federal drug charges, the Durham Police Department announced late Thursday.
Sherrod Peace, 35, is accused of dealing five grams of crack cocaine, and possessing a gun at the time of drug trafficking, according to the Durham police statement. According to the federal indictment, posted online by the ABC11 news channel, the gun was a .45-caliber Smith & Wesson. This is the same make and model carried by Durham police, according to an earlier public records (see graphic) request by the Indy.
Peace worked in the city’s District One, composed largely of eastern Durham neighborhoods, police spokeswoman Kammie Michael wrote in an e-mail. He was with the force from 2003 to Dec. 31, 2009. City personnel records show Peace made about $50,000 a year with the department after a raise in August.
According to the statement, Durham Police Chief Jose L. Lopez Sr. received a complaint in early October 2009 that Peace was involved in illegal activities and started a criminal investigation with the help of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Durham police also conducted an internal investigation.
It is unclear from the statement how Peace was charged or whether he is accused of dealing drugs while on duty.
“We take any allegation of misconduct by our employees very seriously and thoroughly investigate all complaints,” Lopez said in the prepared statement. “Law enforcement officers take an oath to serve and protect the community and we must be held to a high standard.”
Peace was a football star at Northern High School in Durham and while he played at UNC, his cousin Jason Peace was also on the team. Peace also has a fraternal twin brother, Sherron Peace, who played football at Howard University, according to a UNC feature story from 1999.
Durham, Durham County, national, news corruption, crime, DEA, drugs, Durham police department, Jose Lopez, Sherrod Peace
Lisa Sorg ·
28 Jan 2010, 1:57 PM ·
Comment
Polluters, take note: A new environmental crimes task force is launching in North Carolina, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today.
The press release (92kb, pdf) environmentalcrimesgroup sounds serious, but forgive Triangulator if she doesn’t start drinking straight from the Neuse River quite yet. Federal and state regulators are known for their light hand on all but the most egregious of polluters. And sometimes the fines and penalties take years to assess and collect because the polluters declare bankruptcy, tie up the case in the courts, etc.
But with that said, it will be worth tracking the effectiveness of this new initiative.
North Carolina, environment, news Eastern District of North Carolina, environmental crimes working group, U.S. Department of Justice
Lisa Sorg ·
27 Jan 2010, 1:34 PM ·
Comment
Ping Fu, Chapel Hill resident and co-founder of Geomagic, a technology company based in Research Triangle Park, will be a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama at tonight’s State of the Union speech.
You can read the 23-member list here: [76kb, Word doc] firstladyguestlist
While Geomagic is a highly successful company—from 2000 to 2005, its annual revenue grew to $30 million— Fu’s personal story is even more remarkable. According to Inc. magazine, which named her 2005’s Entrepreneur of the Year,
“Ping attended no school at all between the ages of 7 and 18. Instead of San Francisco, Berkeley, and the Ivy League, she was educated through torture, exile, and imprisonment in her native China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.”
According to NPR, which broadcast a profile of her in 2006, Fu, once a journalist, spent two years investigating rumors that China’s one-child policy was prompting couples to kill their baby girls. Fu’s student project got picked up by the People’s Daily. Embarrassed, party officials sentenced Fu to prison.
“I was preparing to die,” NPR quoted Fu as saying of that time, “and then I was given a chance to live.”
Read more about the company and Fu below.
Continue reading »
Chapel Hill, business, national, news Geomagic, Michelle Obama, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Ping Fu, Research Triangle Park, Tibbetts Award, U.S. Small Business Technology Council
