Blogger Kevin Davis had speculated earlier that Bill Gates and his wife Melinda French Gates, Trinity ‘86 and Fuqua ‘87, would be visiting the Durham Public Schools’ Performance Learning Center on West Club Boulevard today.
Turns out he was right.
The couple made a surprise visit to the Center this afternoon. The Gates Foundation also supports similar educational facilities across the country, according to NBC 17.
“There won’t be any surprise presentation on the football field,” said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. “It’s up to them if they want to show up.”
Two of the high-powered assault rifles belonging to the North Carolina Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement are missing, according to a story in The (Raleigh) News & Observer today. The ALE is the only state agency, including the State Highway Patrol, that provides every officer with an high-powered assault riffle, despite the relatively few situations ALE officers encounter where deadly force is needed.
“Wow, I didn’t know they had those,” State Sen. Ed Jones, a Democrat from Enfield who is a retired state trooper, told The News & Observer in an interview. “I’m sitting here trying to think of a good reason to justify why ALE would need that much firepower, but I’m having some trouble.”
Although many renowned speakers helped make the John Hope and Aurelia Franklin Celebration event memorable, who were the guests at the event and why did they attend? In this video series, The Chronicle interviewed students, university faculty and administrators and friends of the Fraklins who came to the Chapel. The series investigates why attendees felt it an important event to attend and what they hoped the speakers and the program would focus on. The series also features memories of the Franklins and attendees’ reactions to the even.
Celebration of the Lives of John Hope and Aurelia Whittington Franklin (1/4)
Celebration of the Lives of John Hope and Aurelia Whittington Franklin (2/4)
Celebration of the Lives of John Hope and Aurelia Whittington Franklin (3/4)
Celebration of the Lives of John Hope and Aurelia Whittington Franklin (4/4)
Forbes magazine has ranked Durham third in its Top College Town for Jobs list Tuesday.
With 7.4% of workers in university jobs and 2.49 employment growth since last year, Durham is one of the top cities seeing “business booms,” the magazine reports. Although job availability decreased by 3.5% over the course of 12 months from March 2008, 62 college towns reportedly saw employment growth. The magazine also considers Duke Durham’s primary university.
Forbes defines “college town” as an area where “employment from universities, four-year colleges, two-year community colleges and university medical teaching hospitals supplied 2 percent or more of area jobs.”
The magazine also considers research universities “great environments” for employment and businesses because of the availability of recent college graduates, providing talent and inexpensive labor.
Two armed men broke into a home in the YE Smith neighborhood of Durham Saturday night.
The men held 11 people at gunpoint in the home, located in the 1100 block of S. Hoover Road, and assaulted several of them before fleeing with cash and other items, according to a Durham Police Department statement.
DPD is seeking Durham resident Christopher Keith Cook, 33, in connection with the incident. He is charged with first-degree burglary, assault inflicting serious injury, several counts of second-degree kidnapping and several counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, the statement said.
According to North Carolina Department of Corrections records, Cook has a lengthy criminal record stretching back to 1992. He was released from prison in January 2009 after serving an 8 year sentence for several drug-related felonies.
Christopher Keith Cook - Durham Police Department
The second suspect has not yet been identified. He is described as a “light-complected black male in his late teens or early 20s with close-cut hair,” by the statement.
DPD asks that anyone with information about either suspect call CrimeStoppers at (919)-683-1200 or DPD Investigator A.M. Cristaldi at 560-4450, ext. 255.
The Durham Police Department released the 2008 crime statistics for the city Monday. Check Tuesday’s Chronicle for the story, or click below for the full report.
Visiting lecturer Ted Vaden has been hired by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, The (Raleigh) News & Observer reports. According to the N&O, Vaden will be deputy secretary of communications at the DOT, a position that pays $117,000.
Vaden is currently teaching courses in reporting and journalism ethics at Duke in the DeWitt Wallce Center [...]
Or so says CNBC, on their segment “Beating the Odds” which features cities “surviving and thriving” even in this period of economic uncertainty. Mayor Bill Bell appeared on the show earlier this month, discussing Durham’s relative insulation from the recession.
Bell attributed Durham’s financial stability to its strong health care industry and of course, higher education. [...]
