Archive for July 22, 2009

From the Wilmington Star-News (7/21/09): Given the choice many, if not most, government officials would choose to conduct their business in secret. Thankfully, the decision isn’t left up to them. Under North Carolina law, the presumption is that government documents and meetings are open to the public unless an exemption is specifically written into the law.

Ashley Barnas works in a cave. Well, not a literal cave, with the high, damp walls, the darkness, the things that go bump in the night. But a figurative one that's probably better defined as a little room in the middle of a larger newsroom. It's affectionately referred to as a cave, and the employees who work inside it have hung bats from the ceiling and drawn pictures of sunshine on the windowless walls.

In one room on Tuesday, first and second graders place animals on a magnetic storyboard. Down the hall, older students listen to a tale of wombats. Children enrolled in a School of Education program are attending classes on campus this month for an enrichment academy that serves as an internship setting for current and future special needs teachers in Elon’s graduate education program.