Number 8: The murders of Abhijit Mahato and Eve Carson

28 Dec 2009, Posted by Lindsey Rupp in Decade in Review, News, 1 Comments

Murder hit close to home in 2008—1.6 miles from West Campus, to be exact. Engineering graduate student Abhijit Mahato, 29, was found shot dead in his

Abhijit Mahato

Anderson Street apartment Jan. 18 that year. Several miles down the road, Eve Carson, 22 years old and student body president of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds March 5, 2008.  Police have charged Durham residents Stephen Oates and Laurence Lovette with the murder of Mahato. Lovette, along with   Durham resident Demario Atwater, was charged in Carson’s death. All three suspects had previous criminal records.

Carson’s death received national media attention, while Mahato’s death was only covered locally before its possible connection with Carson’s murder was reported. Community response was also markedly greater in reaction to Carson’s death than Mahato’s. Local media, Duke students and faculty discussed the disparity, many suspecting it to be in part a result of the victims’ race and sex. But more than discussion, the murders prompted statewide probation reform. Gov. Bev Perdue signed the reform into law July 30, 2009, allowing probation officers access to offenders’ juvenile records and

Eve Carson

providing for warrantless searches of probationers.

Atwater, Lovette and Oates are awaiting trial. If found guilty, Atwater, who recently requested his trial be moved out of North Carolina, could face the death penalty. Lovette could face life in prison if convicted.

The 2009 Clery Report shows some crimes, like burglaries and robberies, decreased on campus in 2008. But since July 2009, 10 students have been robbed at gunpoint. The robberies occurred on East Campus, near East on Watts Street and Markham Avenue, on Campus Drive and at a local restaurant. Another student reported being robbed and sexually assaulted on West.

The murders of Abhijit Mahato and Eve Carson were number 8 on our stories of the decade list. These are the issues and events that made headlines for weeks at a time over the last ten years, those that sparked the most debate on campus and beyond, and the ones that we believe will continue to shape our coverage in the years to come.

Number 9: Building, building, building

28 Dec 2009, Posted by Zachary Tracer in Decade in Review, News, 2 Comments

A football center, an art museum, a dormitory and a science center.

And another science center, another dormitory, a plaza and a school of nursing.

In the past ten years, Duke has added more than $375 million worth of structures to every part of the Gothic (and in some cases, not so Gothic) Wonderland as it worked to cement its top tier status.

“It’s busy,” Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said midway through the decade.

The largest, most expensive projects—intended to provide state of the art accommodations for Duke’s scientists and engineers—were the Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences ($107 million) and the French Family Science Center ($115 million), completed in 2004 and 2006, respectively.

Just down Science Drive, Duke doubled the size of the Sanford Institute of Public Policy with the addition of Rubenstein Hall in 2005, and then got Colin Powell to speak at the building’s dedication.

Duke also built new dormitories on East Campus and West, at a cost of $53 million, and the waning days of 2009 brought a proposal to build yet another residence hall on West. To give students a new place to hang out on campus, administrators constructed a $10 million, 40,000 square-foot plaza connecting the Bryan Center to the Flowers building and Main Quadrangle.

Other hot hang out spots added in the 00’s include Von der Heyden Pavilion and the Link, both added as part of renovations to Perkins Library (though in different phases).

But those looking for a locale a bit more upscale than the plaza’s Panda Express tend to frequent the Washington Duke Inn (a $25 million upgrade in 2005 added 100 rooms, a conference center and a ballroom) or the Nasher Museum of Art, which opened in 2005 after years of planning and $23 million in spending.

Athletics, too, reaped its share of the building bounty. The $23 million Yoh Football Center was completed in 2002 with an eye to drawing talented football recruits, while the Coach K Center for Academic Excellence was built, in part, to keep K at Duke.

In the coming decade, look for Duke to build on Central Campus and abroad—that is, if it can shake the financial crisis (but let’s save that one for later).

The building boom at Duke was number 9 on our stories of the decade list. These are the issues and events that made headlines for weeks at a time over the last ten years, those that sparked the most debate on campus and beyond, and the ones that we believe will continue to shape our coverage in the years to come.

Number 10: North Carolina swings blue in 2008

28 Dec 2009, Posted by Naureen Khan in Decade in Review, News, 1 Comments

No one saw this one coming.

In a state where former president George W. Bush trounced Sen. John Kerry by 12 percentage points earlier in the decade, few predicted that North Carolina would be transformed into an electoral toss-up in the 2008 elections. Indeed, no Democratic presidential candidate had won the reliably conservative-leaning Tar Heel State since president Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford in 1976 in the aftermath of Watergate scandal. And who could expect the state of ultraconservative Jesse Helms to go for the freshman Senator from Illinois, the first African-American major party contender for the presidency?

Barack Obama made his first appearance in North Carolina right here in Durham, alongside fellow Democrat Mayor Bill Bell. After he was able to wrest the North Carolina democratic primary from Hillary Clinton (by double digits), however, speculation began that the changing demographic landscape of the state –driven by an influx of new minority and young voters–as well as dissatisfaction with the economy might give Obama a fighting chance in the general election against Republican Sen. John McCain.

Battle lines were drawn. Both candidates, realizing the importance of the newly crowned swing state, flooded North Carolina with attention, pumping ample campaign funds into the fight and crisscrossing North Carolina until the eleventh hour to persuade last-minute voters. In Greensboro. In Greenville. In Wilmington. In Fayetteville (and again). In Concord. In Raleigh (twice). In Charlotte.

Dukies–as part of the much touted youth vote–got in on the action, canvassing and phone-banking for their preferred candidates and taking advantage of the newly installed early voting station in the Old Trinity room.

Come election day, Democrats swept all of North Carolina’s major races, as The Chronicle followed along at the official Democratic and Republican watch parties in Raleigh and on campus. Barack Obama easily crossed the 360 electoral vote threshold to clinch his historic bid for the White House. Perhaps even more surprisingly, newcomer Kay Hagan stole the Senate race from seasoned vet Elizabeth Dole while then-Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue became North Carolina’s first woman governor, defeating Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory.

North Carolinians, however, had to wait to hear of the fate of their own state. As of Nov. 5, the day after the election, election officials declared the race too close to call. But with 13,000 votes separating Obama from McCain and not enough provisional ballots to make up the difference, the Associated Press called North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes for Obama Nov. 6.

The final tally? 14,912 votes.

Although there are predictions abound of what will shape North Carolina politics in the decade to come, if election 2008 proved anything, it was this: nothing’s a sure thing.

The Democratic sweep of North Carolina was number 10 on our stories of the decade list. These are the issues and events that made headlines for weeks at a time over the last ten years, those that sparked the most debate on campus and beyond, and the ones that we believe will continue to shape our coverage in the years to come.

The Chronicle News Blog Presents: Top Ten News Stories of the Decade

28 Dec 2009, Posted by Naureen Khan in Decade in Review, Featured, News, 5 Comments

If you haven’t noticed as we draw to the close of this decade, the media loves its lists. There’s Time’s annual world’s most influential people list, Rolling Stones’ Best Albums of the Decade, the New York Times Book Review’s Best of 2009, the New Yorker’s Best Films of the Decade…and the list goes on and on and on, if you’ll pardon the pun.

The Chronicle too has caught listmania with Recess staff members  compiling their own Top Ten Tracks of 2009 and Sports doing a series on Duke’s All-Decade Teams. We at News have been perhaps a little slower on the uptake, but we too wanted to bring you a list–of the top ten news stories of the decade.

These are the issues and events that made headlines for weeks at a time over the last ten years, those that sparked the most debate on campus and beyond, and the ones that we believe will continue to shape our coverage in the years to come.

As we publish our picks, we’ll be posting an updated list here:

10. North Carolina swings blue in 2008

9. Building, building, building

8. The murders of Abhijit Mahato and Eve Carson

7. Problems for the Duke University Health System

6. September 11th and the wars on terror

5. New rules for living and learning

4. The Brodhead Era

3. Duke Goes Global

2. The Lacrosse Case

1. Making a smaller Duke

Disagree with our choices? Think our news sense is bogus? Let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

Project Interchange Israel- Day 1

27 Dec 2009, Posted by Sabrina Rubakovic in News, 0 Comments

Today is my first full day in the state of Israel. I arrived yesterday after a 10 hour flight to Tel Aviv, where I am currently staying. Why am I in Israel over my lengthy Winter Break? I am a member of the Project Interchange journalism seminar, which is aimed at opening the eyes of university journalists to contemporary Israeli politics and its representation in the media. And even though I’ve only been here for less than 24 hours, the program has made significant headway towards that goal.

After arriving last night, our group of 17 students made our way to Maganda restauarant in Tel Aviv, where we were presented with plates after plates of Mediterranean dishes (the hummus from the Bryan Center and Whole Foods didn’t compare) and baskets after baskets of the best pita bread I’ve ever had. Over dinner, our group heard from Professor Yossi Shain, head of the Political Science Department at Tel Aviv University and visiting professor at Georgetown. Using pictures of the restaurant owner’s family displayed around the room to make his historical points about immigration into Israel, one of Professor Shain’s largest arguments was Israeli’s seeking normality in the face of abnormality. When I asked him to delve further into this, he explained that in light of war and conflict, Israelis only focus on how they can end the probem quickly, open back up their shops, and get on with their lives normally. With so many conflicts over Israel in the past half a century, such a mindset must be pretty useful.

Today, we talked with Professor Efram Imbar, Director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University. Professor Imbar discussed Israel’s relationship with its Middle Eastern neighbors, touching on the strategic importance of peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, as well as issues such as the threat posed by Iran and renewed Turkish hegemonic ambition in the region. One of the most interesting aspects of his lecture was the image of President Barack Obama in the Middle East. The professor said that Obama is very astute and well-spoken, but that words are not enough; they will not change entrenched attitudes and interests in the Arab world. This led Obama to be seen as a “weakling who speaks but does not deliver.” Along these lines, Professor Imbar did not have a very positive view of Bush’s Iraq policy either, arguing that change must come from within, and America cannot impose democracy on the Middle East.

Of course, the whole week will not be spent receiving history lessons and different takes on policy solutions. After the meeting with Professor Imbar, we had a roundtable discussion with student activists and journalists at Tel Aviv University. One of the biggest things that struck me about the students was their evident maturity in manner and in speaking, as we discussed topics from the road to peace in Israel to the legitimacy of Michael Moore’s documentaries. I quickly learned that this maturity was due to Israel’s requirement of military service for all men and most women at the age of 18. It turns out that 54% of the nation serves in the military, which they are placed in after testing and evaluation during the last year of high school. One young man, who is originally from Australia, stated that his service molded his identity as an Israeli. Usually, he said, you are around people of similar backgrounds and socieconomic status. In the miltary, however, you become immersed within a very wide spectrum of people from Israel. A girl from the former Soviet Union, who served as a commander of 10 soldiers, said that being responsible for so many lives at the age of 18 changed her way of thinking and gave her a more realistic understanding of the world. After this military service, most students would take a vacation before going to university–the boy sitting next to me told me that he backpacked in South America for 7 months. Thus, many Israeli students enter university with a much different and more adult mindset than most, making our roundtable discussion that much more stimulating.

After lunch with students at the Tel Aviv University cafeteria, our group visited the Shanti House in Southern Tel Aviv, which is a shelter for at-risk Israeli teenagers. It is the only one of its kind, using a methodology developed by founder Mariuma Ben Yosef. Yosef implemented a system in which anyone between the age of 14 and 21 that needs a place to call home and has either ran away or been abandoned is welcome at the house. The only requirement is that the children are willing to get help. After a quick background check, the kids’ files are thrown away, never to be looked at again. This is because Yosef believes in having them start with a clean slate, and moving on from the past. The children stay there for a week to many years, doing chores, going to school, and participating in theater, art, and literary workshops. Over 20,000 children have gone through the shelter, which takes in about 1,500 per year. I was surprised to find out that most kids found out about the house by word of mouth, since it is the most famous in Israel. Thanks to the Shanti House, kids that would have becom prostitutes or drug addicts become part of a family and are successfully assimilated into the military or work force of Israel.

I now find myself wondering how I’ve learned so much in less than 24 hours in Israel.With a meeting with international journalists later this evening, it looks like I’ll be learning even more pretty soon. But I’m sure I’ll find time to enjoy the warm waters of the Mediterranean, which is a block away from the hotel, sometime in between.