Showing posts in the “national” category
Samiha Khanna ·
5 Mar 2010, 1:52 PM ·
Comment
Folks, this is even bigger than the “We Want Oprah!” sign that used to occupy the windows of a converted motel on Corcoran Street downtown.
Durham wants Google. Specifically, Durham residents, businesses, elected leaders and creatives are hoping to lure Google Fiber, an project that Google is embarking on to bring broadband fiber and high-speed Internet access to one or more lucky cities in the U.S. Google has opened the application process to the entire country, and like many cities across the country have demonstrated in recent days, Durham wants in.
To demonstrate Durham’s engagement, a committee has organized an effort to spell the words “We want Google” on the field of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Thursday, March 18, said Sam Poley, a spokesman on Durham’s application for Google Fiber. An aerial photographer will take photos of the display that day and submit them to Google when the application is due, March 26. Continue reading »
Durham, Durham County, North Carolina, business, national, news City of Durham, DBAP, Durham Bulls, Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau, Google Fiber, Internet, technology
Samiha Khanna ·
26 Feb 2010, 11:10 AM ·
Comment
Michael Vick, the NFL player convicted in 2007 for running an illegal dogfighting ring in Virginia, is speaking to a group of Durham students this morning at New Horizons Academy of Excellence on Hunt Street.
Vick, who now plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, was sentenced to 23 months in prison for fighting and inhumanely killing pit bulls in the dogfighting ring. He has held other speaking events and made public apologies for his treatment of animals. He was scheduled to begin an assembly at New Horizons at 10 a.m. today.
New Horizons Academy of Excellence is an independent school that provides ongoing education and job training to middle and high school age students who have been long-term suspended, expelled, or have dropped out of Durham Public Schools.
Durham, Durham County, North Carolina, national, news dogfighting, Durham, Michael Vick, New Horizons, NFL, Philadelphia Eagles
Bob Geary ·
23 Feb 2010, 4:08 PM ·
Comment
The U.S. Department of Energy is out with an inspector general’s report today on the “progress” of the Obama Administration’s program for weatherizing low-income homes — and creating much-needed jobs in the bargain. The New York Times‘ summary: It has “borne little fruit” after a year.
So little, in fact, that the IG called it “alarming,” the Times says:
New York State, for example, had a goal of weatherizing 45,400 units over three years but by December had accomplished only 280, a completion rate of 0.62 percent, the report found. One reason was a hiring freeze in New York City.
Progress in Pennsylvania, which weatherized 1.28 percent of the houses and apartments it had intended to, was slowed by a deadlock over the state budget, the report said. Illinois wanted to hire 21 workers to oversee nearly work on 27,000 homes; it hired none because of a spending freeze, and completed only 331, or 1.23 percent of its three-year target.
Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Texas and Wyoming had not weatherized any units by Feb. 16, the report said.
But what about North Carolina, you ask? The answer is on page 3 of the report. North Carolina planned to weatherize 22,203 units. So far, it’s done 197 — or less than 1 percent.
But in North Carolina’s defense, the report continues:
Although North Carolina’s original state plan had been approved by the Department in June 2009, the State had to submit an amended plan, including budget information, through its Department of Commerce. The amended state plan was ultimately not approved by the Department of Energy until November 2009. Accordingly, North Carolina did not have access to its allocation for the Weatherization Program until that time.
***
Wasn’t this supposed to be the simplest of programs for the new Administration — a program that would pay its way both in energy savings and job skills learned by the workers — that it was cinch to be successful?
Oh, my.
North Carolina, national, news Barack Obama, jobs, weatherization
Bob Geary ·
22 Feb 2010, 11:13 AM ·
1 Comment
Obama’s health care proposal, released in advance of Thursday’s big TV show summit with the Republicans, omits the public option (which, in case you’ve forgotten, and the President hopes you have, was included in the House-passed bill). An 11-page summary of the Obamacare plan is here.
national, news Barack Obama, health care reform
Bob Geary ·
18 Feb 2010, 5:04 PM ·
3 Comments
Update 2/22: Democratic sigs on the pro-public option letter now up to 19 with Sen. Specter, D-PA. Not surprising, since Specter has a tough primary and election ahead and the public option is popular. Still no Hagan, however. (And Menendez, D-NJ, makes 20.) I sent a query to Sen. Hagan’s office Friday afternoon asking for her position and/or comment on the letter. No response as yet. Here’s Ezra Klein on “the strange politics of the public option” — i.e., people want it, the Democrats want to be the party of the people, and yet …)
All right, I’ll bite. Four senators signed a letter to Harry Reid, and then four more did, and … now it’s up to 17 with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. But that list of 17 does not include our own Sen. Kay Hagan as yet. BlueNC is on her case, and the Progressive Pulse is copying BlueNC, and what the heck, so will I, even though it’s probably whistling in the graveyard where health care reform is concerned. Except that –
Imho, the public’s support for health care reform, and their faith in the Democrats, evaporated at the moment when the one part of the bill they understood the best — the public option — was deep-sixed in the Senate. Up to that point, people could be assured that, yes, they were going to be required to buy health insurance; and yes, the insurance products in the market are overpriced and full of loopholes; but the saving grace would be that a public product (”option”) would also be offered. And it would be at least as good as, and — unless the Blue Crosses got with it and cut their rates — significantly cheaper, than the alternatives. So maybe HCR wouldn’t be perfect, or even good. But at least it would improve on the status quo.
In other words, all that complicated stuff in the 2,000-page bill that the lobbyists wrote? Our only protection against it was the one page where it said, if all else fails, we’ll offer you an insurance option modeled on Medicare, which everybody likes.
And then Obama and the Dems ditched it to get Joe (I’m the insurance industry’s senator) Lieberman’s vote and some phantom Republicans.
Oops, no Republicans, and they managed to lose Ted Kennedy’s seat in the bargain.
So now, the only way to pass an HCR bill is with 50 Democrats plus VP Biden plus some of these. And the surest way to convince the public that the Democrats aren’t just passing a load of crap is to put the g**d%$#’d public option back in the bill. Which will also signal the world that the Cowardly Dems have visited the Wizard and found their Courage.
Kay’s Washington office:
WASHINGTON, DC OFFICE
521 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-6342
Fax: 202-228-2563
North Carolina, national, politics Kay Hagan
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 ·
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 ·
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
Joe Schwartz ·
26 Jan 2010, 11:28 AM ·
Comment
Four victims of the Haitian earthquake are scheduled to arrive in the Triangle this morning to receive medical attention, according to a press release sent by the N.C. Division of Emergency Management.
The four, one of whom is accompanied by an uninjured child, are being transfered to North Carolina to receive treatment for burns as Florida hospitals cannot handle the massive overflow of Haitians in need of help.
Three will be sent to the UNC Hospitals’s Jaycee Burn Center. The other will be treated at the Wake Forest Baptist Burn Center. The patients, three men aged 24, 29 and 61 and a 54-year-old woman, were set to land at Raleigh-Durham International Airport this morning.
Cary, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Orange County, Wake County, national earthquake, Haiti, North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center, UNC Hospitals, Wake Forest Baptist Burn Center
David Fellerath ·
21 Jan 2010, 5:39 PM ·
Comment
That's actually a mooring mast with the zeppelin, not a radio tower. (Wiki Commons)
What a week for liberals: The Democrats lose Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat, the Supreme Court invites corporations to bring their cash through the front door of the electoral process, lawmakers on Capitol Hill seem ready to fold on health care reform and one-time local populist darling John Edwards admits to fathering his mistress’ child and then disappears to Haiti. Oh, and the Tar Heels and the Blue Devils both lost last night.
And just an hour ago, word came that Air America, the well-intentioned, six-year effort to provide a forum for lefty politics on AM radio, has foundered.
Citing the contemporary economic climate and, more specifically, a 21 percent decline in radio ad revenue over the past year, Charlie Kireker, chair of Air America Media, informed his staff today that the network would cease its “as of this afternoon,” and would soon file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy “to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.”
Locally, Air America provided overnight and some Saturday programming for WCHL-1360. The mainstay hosts of the weekdays, including Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz and Thom Hartmann, are not syndicated by Air America.
WCHL station manager Christy Dixon told Triangulator that “We just received this news ourselves. We’re beginning to look for replacement shows.” She said that the new shows would continue in the station’s format of progressive talk and local programming.
Air America provided a forum for lefty celebrities like Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Earle and Ron Reagan to take to the airwaves. It also created a couple of stars, most notably Rachel Maddow, who began with the network in 2004, co-hosting a show called Unfiltered with Chuck D and Lizz Winstead. Even after moving to her television career with MSNBC, Maddow continued to broadcast on Air America.
After the jump, the memo from Kireker. Continue reading »
Chapel Hill, economy, media, national Air America, Al Franken, Chapter 7, Charlie Kireker, Rachel Maddow, Supreme Court, Ted Kennedy, WCHL
Folks, this is even bigger than the “We Want Oprah!” sign that used to occupy the windows of a converted motel on Corcoran Street downtown.
