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8 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2008 Saving the ‘other’ N.C. basketball franchise It's April again, and it's time to sit down and think about the most depressing thing in all of sports: the Charlotte Bobcats. I, for one, am completely exhausted with the Bobcats and their perpetual struggle toward mediocrity. And since they are the only professional basketball franchise in North Carolina, you should be exasperated, too. As North Carolina residents, we should have a viable NBA team. We’re a big state. We mat ter. And the Bobcats aren't giving us that right now. But they can. They can do it by the end of next year. So let's do this. Let's fix the Bobcats. Step one: stop letting Michael Jordan make draft choices. The Cats need at least one more legit player to come out of this year’s draft. Sadly, the draft choices will probably be either Brook Lope/ or Kerin Love instead. Out of the two, Lopez is probably the bet ter prospect. Anthony Randolph from LSU would work out fine, as well. But no more Adam Morrisons. Do you hear me, M.J.? No more. Second: Revamp the roster. This is going to sound weird, but go with me. 1 promise it’ll all come together. Make sure you get Antaw n Jamison when he becomes a free agent this summer. Do whatever you have to do, but get it done. lyo *5.00 i Off | S|m„ C**' IjS I Lunch Mon-Fri 11:30-2:30 ,H - **" Dinner Mon-Sat 5:30-10:00 j Din* in only 1 One coupon per table 1 302-B E. Main Street • 932-5103 \ E*pic 4/30/08 (in front of the Arts Center & the Cat's Cradle) mbhbhhmm Chapel Hill • Carrboro • Orange County mm forum A COMMUNTH ZV TRANSITION Tune in to News Talk 1360 WCHL for the broadcast of the 2008 Chapel Hill-Carrhoro-Orange County Forum Thursday, April 17 8:00 am -6:00 pm • Schedule of Panel Discussions • 8:00 am Town & Gown Relations: Campus and Community Collaboration 10:00 am Growing a Sustainable Community: Balancing Environment, Social Responsibility, and Economic Vitality 12:00 noon Crime and Safety: A Tough Job Gets Tougher 2:00 pm Education: What's The Grade? 4:00 pm The Arts: Expanding Our Palette Visit www : 1360WCHL.com for complete details. tThe Maitland Law Firm MBMIfUMLWILWIIi Attorneys & Comoekn O>>ton cSsajfc, HR Campus HIGH & RUBISH INSURANCE AGENCY 9 POWELL LATIMER SAY WORD As anyone who watched Jamison play for the past 13 years knows, the guy will kill himself for the win night in and night out. Wait 15 or 20 games into the season, letting your players prove their worth and health. Then, POUNCE! Make a trade to the New Jersey Nets for the Artist Formerly Known as Vince Carter. Oh, that's right, Vinsanity is coining back to the Cakolaks. Odds are that the Bobcats would have to offer only Jason Richardson and one other player maybe a Jared Dudley. Now look at that lineup: Raymond Felton, Carter at the off-guard, and, oh, goodness, Gerald Wallace still high-fly ing, dunking and defending like a beast off the wing. Down low, Jamison stretches the defense, and Emeka Okafor rebounds and puts back thunderous dunks. Now, the obvious problem with this scenario is that Vinsanity hasn't honestly cared about win ning since his last-second jumper clanged out in game seven of the 2001 Eastern Conference semi finals. But put Vince with Jamison his old college buddy Felton and Wallace, and I think he snaps out of it, because those three guys kill themselves every single night out. Their spirit will awaken Carter's heart. The result is that Vince's “jumper's knee" will go right out the window. Vince will go back to being that guy who jumped over some poor European in the 2000 Olympics, the guy who got stron ger once he w-as in the air. Now imagine that I just laid out a relatively feasible future, and 1 also just made the Bobcats the most marketable franchise in sports history. I don't care if you're an N.C. State. Duke or even Appalachian State fan, you cannot hate Antawn Jamison. Impossible. And with that light being cast on Carter as well, the entire state suddenly will fall in love with the Bobcats as they rocket up the Eastern Conference standings and become a darn good team more importantly, a money-making team. I gotta go and get my season tickets. Anyone wanna carpool to Charlotte next year? Contact Pmcell Latimer at tlatimerfg. email.unc.edu VA TECH FROM PAGE 1 when campus was blanketed with banners, posters and even Tibetan prayer ribbons. “It was just the most beautiful thing everywhere you looked it was just one giant art project." That revival of the community spirit could lx- especially important for this year's freshman class, said Va. Tech sophomore Meagan Wray. “They can’t ever fully under stand what happened, but they are a part of everything now," she said. “It kind of brings them into the community more." Jay Poole, director of the newly created Office of Recovery anil News National and World News FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL McCain urges gas tax suspensions PITTSBURGH (AP) - Sen. John McCain on Tuesday called for a summer-long suspension of the federal gasoline tax and sever al tax cuts as the likely Republican presidential nominee sought to stem the public's pain from a troubled economy. To help people weather the downturn immediately, McCain urged Congress to suspend the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. By some estimates, the government would lose about $lO billion in revenue. BET founder says race helps Obama CHARLOTTE (AP) - The billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television says Barack Obama would not be a leading presidential candidate if he wen- white and that the Illinois senator's campaign has “a hair trigger on anything racial." The Charlotte Observer reported on its Web site Monday that Bob Johnson, one of Hillary Clinton's top black supporters, was commenting on remarks previously made by Geraldine Ferraro, another Clinton supporter. “It sfitting that as we celebrate our centennial we remember the tragedy of last year but we also look toward the future” ISHWAR PURI, VA TECH ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND MECHANICS DEPARTMENT HEAD Support, said that while Va. Tech has always been close-knit, the tragedy made students more willing to reach out for counseling and support. "It helped people be a little less reluc tant to stop by and get a checkup." Poole also commented on the physical health of those recovering from injuries suffered last year: of the 26 students injured, six graduated and the rest returned to school, with 10 on track to graduate in May. The university has made chang es in security measures, taking the hundreds of recommendations it received and factoring them into 33 broad initiatives. AnpLhS <Vte cotcttaMy irvviteit to nttenet tSo fruits of Our Labor 2008 Showcase Celebration on Wednesday, April 17,2008 4:00-7:00pm at the Anne Queen Faculty Commons at the Campus Y Celebrate the work of the APPLES Service-Learning Program with students, faculty, and community partners at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Program Presentations 4:00-6:15pm Awards/Rccognition Ceremony 6:15-7:OOpm Hors d’oeuvres served • Parking provided upon request Visit suvrui.unc.edu/applesfor more details about the event. B|AYS % pfflAGiS Over Chris Barron 881^^ Vflß* v JwtwTowiwEorießeyNortenodokonsdous O'WW \ The Allen Boys forth Franks The Soiteou r 4A.T ZydMo Iwia Tres Chicas ScyriMan The Red ML* * Hots Orqiwsia GorDei Keith Secoia & The Wild Bond of Indians J®hnSped* Ray Abshireßombdil _ and many more! ft Deadly blasts throughout Iraq kill 60, contradict U.S. claims of success BAGHDAD (AP) Bombings blamed on al-Qaida in Iraq tore through market areas in Baghdad and outside the capital Tuesday, killing nearly 60 people and shat tering weeks of relative calm in Sunni-dominated areas. The bloodshed struck directly at U.S. claims that the Sunni insurgency is waning and being replaced by Shiite militia violence as a major threat. The deadliest blasts took place in Baqouba and Ramadi. two cit ies where the U.S. military has claimed varying degrees of suc cess in getting Sunnis to turn Strike struggles to stir up employed HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) Opposition attempts to stage a nationwide strike to demand the release of election results largely fizzled Tuesday as many of the few Zimbabweans with jobs reported to work in this economically ravaged nation. The failure underscored the difficulty opposition leaders have had harnessing popular anger against President Robert Mugabe's regime to try to force the release of the official vote count from the March 29 presi dential ballot. Some workers said they were not even aware of the strike call. “On all of those initiatives there has been some action," said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations. The university’s new emergency notification system, VT Alerts, has more than 20,500 subscribers. Wray termed the text message and e-mail notices “really helpful." Also Va. Tech added five new counseling positions and 11 new police officers, created a threat assessment team and ordered inte rior classroom locks. Contact the State and National Editor at &tntdesk(a> unc.edu. (Elir Daiiit ear Hrrl against al-Qaida. It was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since March 6. when a twin bombing killed 68 people in a crowded shopping district in the central Baghdad district of Karradah. The U.S. military said Tuesday that attacks in Baqouba have dropped noticeably since last June. But a series of assassina tions and other high-profile attacks have occurred this year, and American commanders have consistently warned that al- Qaida-led insurgents continue to pose a serious danger. Pakistan receives torch peacefully ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) The Olympic torch came to Pakistan early Wednesday for what the pro-China government hoped would be a festive and trouble-free leg of its world tour. Protests against China's human rights record disrupted the torch’s passage through Western cities last week, and Pakistani authorities took pains to avoid any repeat during its short stay en route to Beijing. There were no indications that rights groups planned any protests like those that disrupted torch relays in Paris, latndon and San Francisco last week. UNC SAFETY FROM PAGE 1 Body President Eve Carson. ■ Four emergency alert sirens intended for activation in the event of an armed and dangerous person on or near campus, a major chemical spill or hazard or a torna do sighting were tested March 26. The test revealed some technical issues, including a limited range. ■ Appalachian State University used its emergency text message notification March 3, when a stu dent falsely reported sighting a gunman off campus. Personnel needs ■ The UNC Campus Safety Task Force recommended that anew associate vice president for safety and emergency operations for the UNC General Administration be installed by August 2008. ■ Both task forces stressed the creation of on-campus threat assessment teams and the retrain ing of faculty and students on how to recognize and report threats. ■ Both task forces found it impor tant that campus police be ade quately trained only 53 percent of sworn officers on UNC campuses were trained in crisis intervention as of January. UNC-CH's Department of Public Safety has been nationally accredited since 1995. ■ Both task forces also suggested that campus police forces engage in a Memorandum of Agreement/ Memorandum of Understanding with each local emergency agency to coordinate emergency responses. Surveillance ■ In its August report on the Virginia Tech shootings, the Virginia governor’s commission noted that security cameras could have helped prevent the massacre. ■ Creating a surveillance camera network that would include every main entrance and access door on UNC-system campuses would cost more than $1.6 million, according to the UNC task force. Mental health as a priority ■ Campuses were urged to devel op a policy of involuntary with drawal of students who pose such a threat, meaning students who haven t actually broken rules can be expelled from school for demon strating threatening behavior. ■ Both task forces focused on the need to retrain faculty on mental health privacy laws to better enable faculty and administrators to report students who might be harmful to themselves or others. ■ The system budget includes $1.9 million in annual funding for case managers for students who could pose a threat to themselves or others and $1.7 million annually for increased counseling services. Building toward safety ■ By August 2011 the system aims to implement Crime Prevention through Environmental Design techniques for new buildings. ■ The state hopes to establish a Center for Campus Safety, which would serve as a hub in coordinating training and sharing information. Contact the State and National Editor at stntde*k(g> unc.edu.
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