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It is a story we have all heard before: sophomores come back to school, fatigued from a break filled with family drama, only to face a cramped dorm room.
Chapel Hill’s Planning Department will be putting together a new staff advisory board to brainstorm ideas for a revamped affordable housing strategy.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro residents are stepping up to help their neighbors in need this holiday season.
The Board of Orange County Commissioners moved for an updated timetable for reviewing an ordinance that aims to compact six county land-use documents into a single cohesive one at Monday night’s meeting.
A resolution regarding opposition to war funding is back on the Orange County Board of Commissioners’ agenda tonight after being tabled in October.
After losing its original venue, the Chapel Hill Fire Department has found a new site to host its fire safety programs.
The Chapel Hill Town Council discussed future uses of the building that formerly housed the Chapel Hill Museum at its Monday night meeting.
Local officials honored restaurants that have helped feed the needy for a decade or more at an afternoon ceremony.
Carolina North’s flagship is likely never going to be built.
A light-rail system to accommodate a growing Triangle population could be in the works if officials can pinpoint the ideal location.
Correction (September 22, 2:11 a.m.): Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this story gave the incorrect name for the group the Orange County Board of Commissioners met with. It was the Mebane City Council. The story has been updated to reflect the correction. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the errors.
Sitting largely undeveloped for 16 years, the Efland-Mebane corridor is expected to see a growth spurt if a revised agreement between the City of Mebane and Orange County is approved.
Students on campus waited Tuesday night for election results that have kept UNC in a flurry for months.In the Student Union loungeSophomore Doug Olivier said he was confident in the outcome of the election early Tuesday night.""I think the election is pretty much set in stone — Obama is going to win" Olivier said around 9 p.m.I've been following the exit polls and it looks like Obama will definitely win Olivier said. Of course they are not always accurate" but the polls tend to be a good predictor.""Other students said they felt as though student opinions on who would win had been skewed by the environment at UNC.""We sort of live in an Obama-bubble"" said first-year graduate student Ross Twele said.He said he felt that the displays of support for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama around campus might lead students to believe that he has a secure handle on the state.While Obama's supporters have been active on campus, the rest of the state wasn't as clear.Junior Monica Matta said she was excited about North Carolina's battleground status.We have more influence as voters than we have before"" she said.At the Connor watch partyJunior Stacy Ramsey" who was already celebrating at the Connor Community watch party" also emphasized the importance of youth voters.""It's exciting that this election marks the pinnacle in American history"" Ramsey said. It's unique that this is happening to us as undergraduates.""Carmichael-Whitehead partyAnd although some students weren't as excited about Obama's prospects" they admitted that he was likely to win.Sophomore and Carmichael- Whitehead Community Governor Christina Fluet who organized that community's watch party" said she had no doubts about the outcome of the presidential election.""Obama will win the state and the presidency hands down" but that's something I'm not exactly excited for" the self-identified McCain supporter said.The Carmichael-Whitehead party included an Election Night Extravaganza"" contest. Residents predicted the outcome of the presidential election" and whoever guessed correctly would be awarded a $25 for dinner at any restaurant on Franklin Street.Some residents at the watch party didn't vote in this year's election.Mikel Wein is a first-year student and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Wein abstained from voting this year" citing a ""lack of choice"" among candidates"" but has followed the election closely.""North Carolina is going to go for Obama"" he said at about 9 p.m. But I think McCain will win because predictions have been wrong before.""Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Advocacy groups are mobilizing to ensure that on Election Day Latino voters have an equal opportunity to vote and have their vote count.El Pueblo a Raleigh-based organization that works to strengthen the N.C. Latino community is disseminating voting information to members of the Latino community.They have been sending volunteers door-to-door since October" distributing information in Latino neighborhoods as part of their ""Trick-or-Vote"" initiative.El Pueblo also will have vehicles to take Latino voters to the polls on Election Day as needed.Tony Asion" executive director of El Pueblo" said Latinos often face challenges even after they arrive to the polls to vote.""Sometimes people are questioned when they get to the voting booth — if they have papers" IDs and such — and they're being asked these questions when nobody else is" he said.Latinos who fail to provide this information are sometimes turned away without voting, he said.To remedy this, Asion said that El Pueblo has sent volunteers to early voting site to ensure such intimidation does not take place, and is planning on doing the same on Tuesday.Labor Council for Latin American Advancement Executive Director Gabriela Lemus said that stopping the spread of misinformation about voting is key to getting Latinos out to the polls.A lot of people get turned away at the polls because they don't have their papers or ID" and they don't know that they don't need those things to be able to vote" Lemus said.The group, an advocacy organization sponsored by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, has distributed flyers containing information about voter rights, where and how to vote as well and a toll-free voter protection hotline number. Like El Pueblo, the labor council also is keeping an eye on polling places. Lemus said volunteers at polling sites will conduct exit polls to make sure the voting rights of Latinos have not been violated.If any serious discrimination occurs, a team of lawyers in each state is prepared to take the fight to the state court and possibly even to the U.S. Department of Justice, Lemus said.The Latino vote may prove vital in deciding the outcome of this year's elections, she said.The Latino vote can be critical in places where the races are tough" she said. In Virginia for example" they are looking at the Latino vote really closely this year.""Asion said that Latinos as a group value voting more than many other key demographics.""I think you'll find nationwide that people who become naturalized citizens have a higher voting record than natural-born citizens" he said. We see voting as a real privilege so as more Latinos become naturalized" you'll see more voting.""Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Since early voting began a week ago, UNC groups have been all over campus advocating its importance and stressing its accessibility.On Wednesday, the UNC Young Democrats led a March to the Polls" starting in the Pit and winding across campus to the nearest early voting site at Morehead Planetarium.They also handed out stickers and T-shirts for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and arranged for a pedicab to bring voters from the Pit until 3 p.m.Any event that gets people excited about physically going to the polls is a good thing" said first-year member Lily Roberts.Although the event was geared toward Democrats, some students said what mattered most was voting, regardless of party.Obviously" we prefer that people not vote for McCain but it is important to vote no matter who you vote for" said sophomore Samantha Pounder, also a Young Democrats member.Michael Foote, a sophomore Young Democrats member, said the organization is hoping to increase youth voter turnout this year — less than 30 percent of young voters turned out for the 2004 presidential election.Kids are fired up about the election" but we need to do our part to deliver them to the polls" he said.According to Orange County Board of Elections records, more than 22,000 people in the 18- to 25-year-old bracket are registered to vote in this year's election.As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 7,000 people overall had voted at the on-campus voting site at Morehead Planetarium.The nonpartisan voter registration group Project SERV has been publicizing early voting in the classrooms.The group is supporting early voting by reaching beyond political organizations on campus and encouraging professors to take their students to the polls, specifically in the political science department.We're just turning to all the options we can to try to create a nonpartisan effort"" said Katja Wallin, Project SERV's co-director.She said early voting removes much of the burden of going to the polls on Election Day when the polls might be more crowded or the voter might be busier.Voting early makes civic duty feel like civic opportunity" so you can go when you're available and there's not so much stress as on election day" she said.On Wednesday, UNC College Republicans hosted a screening of The Youngest Candidate"" a documentary about teenagers running for office in the United States.The screening was the part of director Jason Pollock's Why Wait? Early Voting"" tour of 15 college campuses.Pollock said that this year's election could have a great impact on how the youth vote is perceived.""This could be the year that youth change the way campaigns are run" he said. The youth vote has been talked about a lot" but not really seen before. It's time to start gearing campaigns toward the youth.""Pollock said he was impressed with UNC's widespread support of early voting.""We've been elsewhere in North Carolina"" but UNC has been the best we've seen.""Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Voter education literally rolled onto the quad at Duke University on Friday.A 45-foot tour bus painted bright red and blue parked in front of Duke Chapel the latest stop on Project Vote Smart's national tour of college campuses which began October 2007.Project Vote Smart founded in 1992 is a nonprofit nonpartisan group that collects information on politicians and candidates and makes it readily accessible to voters through an Internet database.Jeremy Clemens legislative research director for Project Vote Smart" said the group aims to cut through the ""spin and rhetoric used by politicians in their campaigns.""The group's tour bus is equipped with wireless Internet and a screening room that plays a film highlighting Project Vote Smart's mission and how to access the database.Visitors Friday were able to view the film and explore the candidate database — all within the bus.Outside"" volunteers distributed Project Vote Smart literature as well as voter registration forms. Clemens said the bus tour is the group's first and is helping the organization announce the completion of their candidate database.""It's basically our coming out party"" he said.Lindsey Needham, a UNC sophomore, interned with Project Vote Smart earlier this year at the organization's ranch in Montana.The project's database is compiled through candidates' answers to the Project Vote Smart's Political Courage Test, which asks candidates to report their positions on issues important to voters, Needham said.The candidates' answers are then compared to their voting record, as well as any campaign contributions they have received. About 50 percent of the candidates never take the test, Needham said.Ron Butler came from Fayetteville with his family of four to see the bus.WRAL reported on the tour stop this morning" and we decided to make a field trip out of it" he said, explaining that his children are home-schooled and that the family thought the bus would make a great educational tool.Eric Zimmerman, a Duke first-year, stopped by the bus to pick up a voter registration form. Zimmerman, a Democrat from Texas, said he would rather vote in a battleground state like North Carolina, where his vote is more likely to make a difference.Faisal Khan of Cary praised Project Vote Smart for giving voters an opportunity to look deeper at the candidates they support.People these days are disengaged"" Khan said. There are simply too many layers of information for most people. It's very important to have transparency on these issues.""The project's tour bus has eight more college stops planned before election day. The bus will be in Washington" D.C. the week before election day on Nov. 4 when the group will unveil a giant American flag balloon on which students from all the tour stops have written their thoughts on candidates' election tactics.The balloon which has passed through several stops already" reflects that voters are dissatisfied with the prevalence of negative attack ads and the country that the direction is headed.""We wanted to give people a canvas they can write their views on."" Clemens said.Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Triangle area high school teachers are finding that the presidential election is a handy teaching tool.While the historic nature of the 2008 election gives teachers a hands-on example for teaching civics and history" schools are also mobilizing their voting-age students.""We have almost daily class discussions on issues facing America today and why it is so important for people to vote in the upcoming election"" said Kay Lawson-Demery, chairwoman of the department of social studies at Chapel Hill High School. Lawson-Demery said teachers at the school are encouraging students to listen to debates and take notes to contribute assessments of candidates' performances in class.Both East Chapel Hill High School and Needham B. Broughton High School in Raleigh held voter registration drives last spring to make sure eligible seniors were able to vote in the May 6 state primary.William G. Enloe High School, also in Raleigh, has arranged for the Wake County Board of Elections to distribute voter registration forms to the school, which the school will return to the board.Teachers said the student reaction to the upcoming election is like nothing they've seen before in their classes.The students seem to have taken more interest in this election than any I can remember" going back to 1984 in my teaching career" said Robert Brogden, a social studies teacher at East Chapel Hill. (Barack) Obama has created a buzz among young people that hasn't been there in previous elections.""Chad Keister" chairmen of the social studies department at Enloe" echoed Brogden's thoughts. He said students are now more involved and informed during class discussions.""There is something qualitatively different about this election. Students are animated and engaged in ways that I've never seen here in my 10 years at Enloe" Keister said.I've even got kids now reading the Washington Post online" which I've never had before.""At Broughton"" civics teacher Laura Lineberger and her colleagues have altered the curriculum to better educate students about elections. ""We decided as a group of civics teachers to teach the curriculum out of order this year so that we could teach political parties and elections prior to the actual election"" Lineberger said.Civics classes are extra exciting this year. I'm taking every opportunity I can to keep the kids paying attention and understanding what is going on.""Robert Leming" director of the Center for Civic Education's We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution program that provides teaching materials that encourage political participation" praised teachers' efforts to keep students engaged in the election.""Every election is important"" but this one really is historic. You've got a chance for a woman vice president or a black president.""Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu
RALEIGH — Candidates for state and national office met with constituents of a different demographic on Saturday.Gubernatorial senatorial congressional and state legislative hopefuls spoke at a candidates' forum at the N.C. Museum of History fielding questions from an audience of local elementary middle and high school students.The forum was sponsored by Kids Voting USA a nonprofit group devoted to informing children about elections and voting.Before taking questions from the audience" candidates zeroed in on the issue most relevant to the young audience — education. Most of them criticized current educational policy in the state and nationwide.""You kids have been robbed"" said Hugh Webster, Republican candidate for the 13th Congressional District. Robbed of a good education by the condition of our public schools.""Some of the criticism included discussion of educational reform" especially for No Child Left Behind a federal education reform act that emphasizes accountability for schools and school districts through standardized testing.However questions from the audience touched on other topics mostly skirting educational issues.Middle and elementary school students focused predominantly on issues such as the war in Iraq and the environment while high school students seated in the front asked more targeted questions on topics ranging from the subprime mortgage crisis to rising fuel costs.After the forum the participants took part in election-themed activities" making political buttons and filling out mock ballots. ""It's nice that candidates would take time out of their campaigns to spend time with the people who would be affected by their actions"" said Julie Daw, an Apex parent. My children want to be informed when they go to the polls for the first time"" she said. Her son Charles, 9, echoed his mother's concerns.I don't want to vote for the wrong guy"" he said. Thirteen-year-old Graham Lynn, who came with a church group from Erwin, said he thinks the candidates benefited from learning what matters to kids.I think the candidates came to know how we feel. They want kids' opinions of who'd be the best"" he said. His sister Catherine, 9, said that the candidates' presence at the event showed the importance of youth participation.We came to express that we're part of America" she said. Candidates want to know who kids would vote for" and they care about voter participation.""Rick Armstrong of Knightdale said that attending the event could foster good political discussion within his family of six.""Many families don't talk politics"" he said. An event like this encourages kids to talk to their parents and get a family discussion going. It provokes thought."" Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
UNC-Chapel Hill's medical and pharmaceutical schools will partner with an N.C.-based medical research institute to ensure that experimental drugs are safe before they go on the market.The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences and UNC announced last week plans for a Center for Drug Safety Sciences a pooling of their resources to research the safety of new drug products. UNC is the first school to partner with the institute.The University will provide the medical faculty for the research while Hamner will provide funding through grants from the Environmental Protection Agency the National Institutes of Health and other branches of the federal government.The center located on the Hamner campus in Research Triangle Park is the first of its kind to open worldwide said Paul Watkins" the future director for the center and a UNC professor of medicine. Watkins described the opportunity to direct the center as ""a dream come true"" and said the center meets a critical need in the pharmaceutical industry.""One major goal of our center is to develop tests that can identify the susceptible people so that they won't receive a drug that will cause this reaction in them. ""Because we can't identify the susceptible individuals currently" many drugs are never approved even though they could be beneficial to the vast majority of patients taking them" Watkins said. Drugs are often tested on animals before human trials to rule out severe miscalculations, but Watkins said that's not a perfect system. Drugs that hurt animals are rarely advanced in drug development. Animals don't perfectly predict humans"" he said, adding that he hopes to make all preclinical testing, including that on animals and cell cultures, more accurate.The Hamner Institute is providing most of the initial funding, but the center is expected to come up with funds itself after the first year. UNC will only be providing salaries for their faculty members, said William Greenlee, president and CEO of Hamner.UNC faculty will be able to work with the institute's faculty to secure larger grants for the center's research. Hamner also is looking into similar arrangements with Duke University, Wake Forest University and East Carolina University.Right now" we're still in discussion mode with other schools" Greenlee said. The difference between our relationship with UNC and with these other universities is that at UNC we have a true partnership. Other schools are just looking for a state of collaboration that could evolve into a partnership.""Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
A new partnership between a UNC-Charlotte professor and a Chapel Hill-based research institute aims to increase understanding of hurricanes that make landfall in Brunswick County.This information will be used to better understand the relationship between hurricanes and the tornados they often spawn.UNC-C meteorology professor Matthew Eastin has teamed with Renaissance Computing Institute to put together a map of weather patterns in the coastal county .""We want to observe tornado formation or hurricane rain bands" and that's hard to do without more observation" Eastin said.Eastin and his students installed three weather stations in the county last week, bringing the total number of weather monitoring sites in the area to 11. There are already four from RENCI along with four more from the National Weather Service.That high density of monitoring sites is the reason for choosing Brunswick over other coastal counties, Eastin said.He hopes to use data from all 11 sites to get a countywide picture and observe hurricane-spawned tornados in the area. This ties into his primary research focus of tornadic activity. In addition to the land-based monitoring provided by UNC-C, RENCI and the National Weather Service, Eastin will be working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which collects data offshore.It's a two-pronged approach" he said.RENCI originally installed its sensors to monitor flood data and is now assisting Eastin with the necessary computing technology. The groups decided to pool resources when they realized they would have sensors in the same area.Eastin is looking for data to help his research and we're allowing him to use data from our sites and our network because it also helps us. We're leveraging resources together on this" said RENCI spokeswoman Karen Green.Our objective is to use university resources to solve statewide problems. We try to make use of advanced technology to look for new solutions to these problems.""Although it is difficult to anticipate tornados as precisely as hurricanes and some other forms of severe weather"" more information could improve understanding.""Few hurricanes actually make landfall without generating at least one tornado" and that's why you'll always see a tornado warning along with a hurricane watch" said Scott Stevens, a meteorologist for NOAA.Hurricanes that hit North Carolina often hit with less intensity than those in the Gulf of Mexico because of colder water temperatures off the coast. However, Stevens said that Brunswick County is a great place to gather hurricane data in the state.The frequency of hurricane strikes in Brunswick is comparable with anywhere along the Gulf Coast"" excluding Florida.""Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.