BCR's Daily Fishwrap Report for November 24, 2009

The big news locally (Herald-Sun, N&O) today is the BOCC's vote on construction runoff and erosion mitigation rules, with the board voting to bring Durham in compliance with a new state mandate. More on that shortly here at BCR.

In other local news:

Duke's Sweatshop Stand Pays Off: Duke was the first university (back in 1998) to require all its licensees to adhere to a code of conduct for the production of licensed campus t-shirts, sweatshirts and the like -- and it was a pioneer again last spring, one of the first colleges to cut off ties with Russell Athletics after the firm closed a South American plant employing 1,200 soon after a unionization vote by its workers. Now Russell has agreed to re-open the plant and hire back the workers, something a worker's rights group says is in part due to Blue Devil pressure. (Herald-Sun)

Prostitution Sting Nets Almost 30: 28 prostitutes and attempted customers were arrested in a NECD sting over the weekend, part of the ongoing Operation Bulls Eye effort to target an area that's suffered from high drug, violent crime and prostitution issues. (NBC 17)

Royal Oaks Blaze Arson: A fire at an apartment complex last week that injured one firefighter is now suspected to be arson, fire officials say. A youth was charged with an earlier arson attempt in October at the same complex. (Herald-Sun)

NCCU Aims for AALS: NC Central's law school will find out this week if it can become the first historically black public institution accepted into the Association of American Law Schools; its dean notes that NCCU doesn't rank comparably on faculty research and scholarship but is on the upswing in those categories. (Herald-Sun)

New CQ Crime Data Yields Mixed Results: In a not-so-shocking finding, economically-exclusive suburban communities like Cary appear on lists of America's safest cities by walling out crime, while cities like Durham and Raleigh have above-average crime levels in a ranking of 400 US cities. Durham ranks as one of NC's safest cities -- ahead of Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Fayetteville -- though behind High Point, Greenville and Raleigh. Nationally, Durham's crime levels per capita are roughly on par with San Francisco, Berkeley, Boston, Richmond Va., Huntsville Ala., and Salt Lake City. (Triangle Business Journal)

Comments

[209]

I just looooove the Prostitution Sting... GREAT, GREAT, GREAT work by DPD!

Would love it if District 5 will do a sting operation on my street. All you have to do is to put a bike or grill (: out for 15 mins and it will be gone.

[Rob Gillespie]

Of note in the rankings is that only 393 cities are ranked. This means that a rank of 98th highest isn't as bad as it first sounds.

I guess I had previously severely over-estimated the number of cities in the US.