Global leaders see Obama as incompetent

President Obama came into office as the heir to a great foreign policy legacy enjoyed by every recent U.S. president.

via Mort Zuckerman: World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur – US News and World Report.

Raleigh area gang violence down 49%

Criminal activity involving gangs was down by 49 percent in Raleigh during 2009, according to a report by the Gang Unit of the City of Raleigh Police Department. Police attributed the decrease to collaborations with community organizations, proactive intervention measures, gang prevention and suppression, and aggressive enforcement.

There were a total of 1,417 gang-related crimes in the Capital City last year. Not only did overall gang-affiliated criminal incidents drop, decreases in gang activity were also reported in specific crime categories citywide in 2009, according to the Police Department’s report. The report found that:

• Gang-related drug cases were down 43 percent;
• Firearm cases involving gang members dropped by 53 percent;
• Assaults involving gangs decreased by 67 percent; and,
• Gang-related robberies were down by 56 percent.

In 2009, the Police Department began tracking and analyzing gang-related crimes. Robberies, assaults, burglaries, vandalisms and illegal drugs are the leading crimes generally committed by gangs. Fifty-six (56) percent of Raleigh’s gang crime occurred in the southeast sector but no area of the city was immune from these acts.

The Police Department estimates there are 56 separate gangs or gang sets in Raleigh, with total membership estimated at 3,070. About 76 percent of these gang members are between 16 and 25 years old, according to the Police Department’s report on gang activity in 2009. Half of all gang members are in the 18-to-22 age range, the report said.

In recent years, the City of Raleigh Police Department has initiated several gang prevention, intervention and suppression initiatives. The goal of these programs is to minimize the presence, activities and violence of gangs, and to promptly identify and arrest those gang members who commit crimes. The Police Department focuses on educating parents, teachers and others in the community on how to recognize and

prevent gang activity. Here are some of the department’s anti-gang initiatives:

• The Police Department provides all of its officers with training regarding gangs, including mandatory in-service training. Among those who receive this training are district gang liaisons, school resource officers, D.A.R.E. officers, community policing officers and crime prevention specialists;
• The Police Department’s Gang Suppression Unit, formed in 2006, uses targeted enforcement strategies to address gang-related criminal activity. The department’s Gang Intelligence Unit, which was started in 2008, monitors criminal activity of gangs and gathers intelligence information on gang-related crime patterns. This intelligence information helps the police develop strategies for combating gangs;
• The Police Department’s school resource officers assigned to Raleigh high schools work closely with security personnel from the Wake County Public School System on gangs, as well as other potential threats to students;
• The Police Department is one of 60 partners in the Wake County Gang Prevention Partnership. The partnership works to reduce violence, illegal activities and gang membership throughout the county;
• The Police Department operates a mentor initiative in which retired police officers work as part-time mentors to at-risk children at the Sgt. Courtney T. Johnson, Tarboro Road and Roberts Park community centers in southeast Raleigh. Additionally, the Police Department has partnered with Second Round Boxing, a non-profit organization that also works with at-risk children while teaching life skills through boxing. Officers with the department’s Gang Suppression Unit and the Selective Enforcement Unit help train the youth with such things as physical conditioning and boxing techniques. The hope is that these officers develop positive relationships with these youth, which in turn could lead to mentorships;
• The Police Department promotes a Gang Tip Line, 996-GANG (4264) that citizens can use to request information about gang awareness presentations and to report possible gang activity; and,
• The Police Department partners with the City’s Community Services and Parks and Recreation departments and others to offer summer youth programs to keep children off the streets, out of trouble and away from gangs. These programs include a charm school for girls between the ages of 13 and 17, the Explorer Police Academy; job skills training, the Junior Police Academy, a soccer camp, the Student Police Academy, and a Mentorship Baseball League.

In addition to these initiatives, the Police Department is planning additional anti-gang strategies as part of a five-year strategic plan. These include:

• Creating a Youth & Family Services Section in the Detective Division. This new section will be comprised of the department’s Family Violence Intervention Unit and a Juvenile Crimes Unit along with Youth Services and D.A.R.E. officers. The consolidation will bolster the Police Department’s efforts to combat family violence and youth offenders, including gang members;
• Expanding youth intervention programs to reduce gang activity; and,
• Creating a third Selective Enforcement Unit and a third Street Drug Unit to complement ongoing initiatives in areas of the city that have been identified as having high numbers of gang members.

www.raleightribune.com is for sale

The domain: www.raleightribune.com is for sale!

Contact: tim@raleightribune.com

Tax Day Tea Party in Raleigh, NC

Triangle Conservatives Unite organized an event dubbed the “Tax Day Tea Party” yesterday in Raleigh, North Carolina at the State Capitol grounds.

The event had a laundry list of guest local Republican and Libertarian speakers who spoke out against illegal immigration, high taxes, and Obama’s healthcare reform.

“America needs to return to morals and values, and government needs to better represent its people,” said Laura Long organizer and member of Triangle Area Conservatives.

Long, and many Americans from all walks of life gathered for the event: the young and

old, the crippled and handicapped, the businessman and construction worker, and husband and wife. They all came out to protest the current administrations position on issues they see as sending their country spiraling into a socialist abyss.

“We are expecting as many as 5,000 Tea Partiers to show up,” one organizer said, “at least that is about how many showed up last year.”

When asked what they hoped to gain because of the event, Long summed it up in this statement:  Tax Day Tea Party.

“When Conan O’Brien’s audience for “The Tonight Show” settled in around 2.5 million viewers, it was such a disaster that NBC had to wade in a firestorm of ridicule and reinstall Jay Leno at 11:35,” according to NYDailyNews.com

Conan cannot return to lat night TV until September in accordance with his buyout agreement with NBC, but when he does, his show will bump the Lopez Tonight show to the midnight time slot.

“In three months. I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing in live theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly,” O’Brien said in a statement.

O’Brien might not gather a 2.5 million viewer following on TBS, but what he will do is bring much needed attention to the cable network, attention that will boost the rating of other network shows and bring in advertisement revenue.

A report by Assistant Fire Chief/Fire Marshal W.R. Styons and issued today by City Manager J. Russell Allen to the Raleigh City Council recommends “restricting the use of pine straw in close proximity to structures that have readily combustible exterior surfaces.” Asst. Chief Styons writes in the report  that pine straw’s flammability clearly sets it apart from other organic ground cover. He specified pine straw’s rate of flame spread and flame height are several times greater than that of other organic ground covers such as mulch or pine bark nuggets. The report contains graphs that show that pine straw’s rate of spread in inches per minute is 90 compared to 4.8 for large pine bark, 6.3 for small pine bark and 11.5 for cypress.  The flame height is 21.9 inches for pine straw.  That is more than three times the height of the next tallest flame height for ground covers which is 7.1 inches for large pine bark.

Mayor Charles Meeker said that he wants the City Council to act on the report’s recommendations at it April 6 meeting.

Dormant grass, decorative pine straw beds high winds and low humidity fed and fueled a fire that consumed 32 townhomes on Feb. 22, 2007 in the Pine Knoll subdivision. The same destructive combination destroyed three homes and significantly damaged three homes off of Armadale Lane on March 23.

The report recommends adaptation of construction methods/codes to provide noncombustible foundation walls of sufficient height to prevent structural ignition associated with flammable ground cover and limiting and/or restricting flammable ground cover’s proximity to structures that have readily combustible exteriors. Asst. Chief Styons recommends that the City adopt an ordinance prohibiting the use of pine straw within 10 feet of any combustible structure with the exception of single- and two-family dwellings.  “It is the opinion of this office that we lack jurisdictional authority to mandate action in one- and two-family dwellings,” he explained.

The report states that three North Carolina municipalities have enacted ordinances similar to that being proposed. They are Apex, Chapel Hill and Morrisville.

NEW YORK — North Carolina wrapped up last season by cutting down the nets during a championship celebration, and the goal all along has been to do it again this year.

Tar Heels beat Rhode Island in NIT semifinals – WRALSportsFan.com.

On March 16, the Raleigh City Council received a report from Reid Wilson, executive director, Conservation Trust for North Carolina, for the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative (UNCWI) on the continued activities to conserve high priority parcels in the Upper Neuse River basin.

The purpose of UNCWI is to protect water quality, limit polluted run-off and sedimentation along key tributaries that run into nine drinking water reservoirs, including Falls Lake, by conserving land. This preventive approach to limiting runoff pollution is more cost effective than cleaning up polluted water. It also maintains wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities. Since December 2005 the land trusts have completed 42 projects resulting in the protection of 46 miles (243,501 stream feet) of streamside buffer totaling over 4,400 acres.

The City of Raleigh provides the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative $1.5 million of funding in the current fiscal year. Raleigh’s investment is leveraged at an 11 to 1 ratio through state and local governments and private donors. The City Council will consider maintaining the level of funding to UNCWI during the budget deliberations.

Mr. Wilson told the City Council the land trusts in the UNCWI are continuing to build on their success and are currently working with partners on 28 projects that would protect an additional 2,000 acres along more than 23 miles of streams in the Upper Neuse River Basin. The UNCWI recently received a three year $1.7 grant from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities.

The funds match City of Raleigh support. The funds will be used to support outreach to landowners, the implementation of sustainable forestry practices and the protection of forests through conservation easements.  The City Council will consider a resolution calling for the North Carolina General Assembly to fund the Clean Water Management Trust in the coming year’s budget.

A 2008 video commentary

Federal tax incentives that had been in place since 2006 for landowners that donate conservation easements expired at the end of 2009. Congress is considering legislation to make the incentives permanent. The bill’s passage will likely result in more conservation easements being donated in the Upper Neuse basin. The City approved a resolution to request the area’s Congressional delegation to support reauthorization of the tax incentives for landowners.

UNCWI consists of local land trusts that are supported by funding from the City of Raleigh and other local and state government entities. These local land trusts have united to address land conservation and water supply protection in the Upper Neuse River Basin. The Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, Eno River Association, Tar River Land Conservancy, Triangle Greenways Council, Triangle Land Conservancy, and the Trust for Public Land, facilitated by the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, have developed a comprehensive conservation plan that identifies and ranks the land most critical for water-supply protection.

The Falls Lake watershed is the primary source of drinking water for the City of Raleigh and the six towns that receive water from Raleigh — Garner, Wake Forest, Rolesville, Knightdale, Wendell and Zebulon. The Upper Neuse River Basin also includes eight other drinking water reservoirs in Durham, Granville and Orange counties.

Raleigh, NC in the 1950s

In 1930, Raleigh had a population of 37,379 and covered 7.254 square miles. In this year Curtiss-Wright Flying Field, Raleigh’s first aviation facility, opened and City Hall and Auditorium on East Davie Street was destroyed by fire. The first of six Raleigh banks to close during the Great Depression shut its doors in 1930.

In 1940, Raleigh had a population of 46,879 and covered 7.254 square miles. The General Assembly chartered the Raleigh-Durham Aeronautical Authority and Raleigh installed its first parking meters along Fayetteville Street.  The only Wake County native ever to serve as governor, J Melville Broughton, was elected.

In 1950, Raleigh had a population of 65,679 and covered 10.883 square miles. North Carolina State University completed its iconic Memorial Bell Tower and Reynolds Coliseum, which was the site of scores of historic Atlantic Coast Conference basketball confrontations for the next nearly 50 years. Raleigh shoppers were enjoying the South’s first shopping center, Cameron Village.

In 1960, Raleigh had a population of 93,931 and covered 33.669 square miles. Raleigh was positioned for growth into the last half of the 20^th century with the establishment of the Research Triangle Park. William Campbell was the first African American child to attend a white school in Raleigh. He enrolled at Murphey High School. A new municipal building is opened at the corner of S. McDowell and West Hargett streets.

Crabtree Valley Mall in the 1970s

In 1970, Raleigh had a population of 122,830 and covered 44.929 square miles. North Carolina State University was playing football in sparkling new Carter Finley Stadium and shoppers forgot their weather woes while enjoying Raleigh’s first enclosed mall, North Hills.

Dexter Strickland hit the go-ahead free throws with 2:34 left and North Carolina held William & Mary scoreless for the final 5 minutes in the Tar Heels’ 80-72 win in the first round of the NIT on Tuesday night. Deon Thompson scored 20 points to lead the Tar Heels (17-16), the reigning national champions who found themselves in the NIT for the first time in seven years after a disappointing season. But they weathered a flurry of 3-pointers from the Tribe to ensure they would finish at least .500. Tyler Zeller added 13 points for the fourth-seeded Tar Heels, who advanced to the second round to face the Jackson State-Mississippi State winner. David Schneider scored 21 points on seven 3-pointers for the fifth-seeded Tribe (22-11), who shot 16 for 43 from behind the arc.

Source: AP

Homeless veterans have an opportunity to receive services and referrals at the 2010 Capital Area Stand Down to be held March 25 at the Wake County South Wilmington Street Center, 1420 South Wilmington Street.

Beginning at 7:30 a.m. through 3:00 p.m. a variety of services will be offered including healthcare, social services, VA benefits, housing and employment opportunities and referrals and vouchers for other services.  Breakfast and lunch will be offered.

The 2010 Capital Area Veterans Stand Down is sponsored by the City of Raleigh, Wake County Human Services, Wake County Community Services, North Carolina Employment Security Commission, Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center, United States Department of Labor, Healing Place of Wake County, and the Raleigh Veterans Center.

Andrew Young and wife Cheri Young

Pittsboro, N.C. — A judge said Tuesday that he was considering jail time for a former aide to two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards because of questions about a videotape purported to show Edwards engaged in extramarital sex. Apparently, the judge believes former Edward’s aid, Andrew Young is withholding extra copies of the tape …. See the rest of the story

In a game that often times decides the ACC title, the North Carolina Tar Heels and Duke Blue Devils will close out their regular seasons against one another yet again.

Update: Final: Duke 82 UNC 50

Coach Mike Krzyzewski wasn’t sure if any of his teams had ever done it before, but he seemed happy that they did.

After humiliating rival North Carolina with an 82-50 stomping Saturday night, Duke’s players cut down the nets at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Fourth-ranked Duke (26-5, 13-3 ACC) had captured a share of the ACC regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed for this week’s ACC Tournament.

See the rest of the story

Just ask third-seeded Virginia, a team the sixth-seeded Wolfpack knocked off 66-59 in the quarterfinal round of the ACC Women’s Tournament on Friday night at Greensboro Coliseum.

See the rest of the story the N&O.

The top-seeded Blue Devils came from 11-points down to take the lead in their quarterfinal game at the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament.

Updated 5 March 2010; 9:30 p.m.

Blue Devils hold off the Terps in a game that came down to the wire in a 66-64 victory.

The Blue Devils rallied from 11 point deficit in the first half, moved ahead by a free throw from guard Bridgette Mitchel, a steal by center Krystal Thomas, and a layup by forward Joy cheek.

From there, the Blue Devils stood their ground defensively over the final 1:15, according to the N&O.

The Raleigh City Council voted unanimously to oppose commercial development in the Falls Lake watershed. Council members took the action at its March 2 meeting in response to a proposal being considered by the Wake County Board of Commissioners that would include converting a lumber yard within the watershed into a shopping center.

The City of Raleigh strongly believes that commercial development in the Falls Lake watershed would impede efforts to protect the lake’s water quality. Falls Lake is the area’s primary source for drinking water.

The N.C. Division of Water Quality (DWQ) has released its draft rules for addressing high nutrient levels in Falls Lake. Associate City Attorney Dan McLawhorn told the City Council the proposal “strongly reflects” consensus principles endorsed by the City of Raleigh and other municipalities in the region for protecting and restoring the lake’s water quality. The primary difference in the two documents centers on requirements imposed on new roads developed by the N.C. Department of Transportation.

High nutrient levels have been recorded in the Falls Lake reservoir. These nutrients could lead to more frequent algae blooms and low dissolved oxygen levels in the lake, possibly resulting in extensive fish kills. The North Carolina General Assembly has directed the state Environmental Management Commission (EMC) to develop and implement a nutrient management strategy for the Falls Lake reservoir. The implementing rules are to take effect by Jan. 15, 2011. The EMC will be holding hearings on DWQ’s draft rules to get input from the public, including municipalities.

Heels defeat Miami

Before every Senior Night game, North Carolina coach Roy Williams looks to each underclassman and reminds them of the guys they must win for. But Tuesday at the Smith Center, seniors Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson seemed determined to win it for themselves.

Update:

“But today,” Williams said Tuesday night after his team beat Miami 69-62, “the old guys took care of themselves.”

Playing as if they wanted to extend their college careers – and now they just might – seniors Marcus Ginyard (first career double-double) and Deon Thompson (14 points, despite a sore back) led the Tar Heels to the 2,000th win in program history, kept Williams undefeated (22-0) on senior night and gave UNC its first two-game winning streak since December.

Beginning Friday, Feb. 26, the City of Raleigh temporarily will stop adding ammonia to its water treatment disinfecting process.

The change is required by the federal and state regulations governing the operation of the City’s water system.  The City will resume adding ammonia to the water treatment process on Friday, April 9.

Using ammonia in the treatment process helps reduce the amount of trihalomethanes, a byproduct formed when water is disinfected with chlorine. The six-week return to chlorine-only disinfecting is not expected to cause any significant increase in trihalomethanes. Trihalomethane levels are strictly regulated in drinking water, and the City of Raleigh has maintained compliance with all limits on trihalomethanes since regulations were put in place in 1981.

Some users of water may be affected by the temporary change in the treatment process. Water customers should be aware that residual traces of ammonia and chlorine must be removed from the water prior to use in fish aquariums and ponds, kidney dialysis and some commercial manufacturing of food and beverages.

The City also conducts flushing of the water distribution system during this period to hasten the change of chloramines to chlorine residual disinfectant. The flushing may cause some temporary minor discoloration in the water. The water is absolutely safe.  However, as a precaution, customers may check to see if their water is discolored before washing white clothes.

Water customers affected by this change include those who pay water bills to the City of Raleigh and to the towns of Rolesville, Garner, Knightdale, Wendell, Wake Forest and Zebulon.

Questions about this change in water treatment should be directed to Edward Buchan, environmental coordinator for the City of Raleigh Public Utilities Department, at 857-4540 or by mail at the City of Raleigh Public Utilities Department, P.O. Box 590, Raleigh, N.C. 27602.