Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has an ivy-league education, but the talking-head wisdom maintains he has trouble relating to the common man.

Looks like a Durham outfit is doing this about that.

The political committee of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People is inviting candidates in the Nov. 4 election to come for interviews next week.

Candidates seeking the committee’s endorsement may call its office at 530-1100 or political chairman Chester Jenkins at 688-1682 for appointments.

The Durham People’s Alliance has endorsed Durham County’s proposed 1 percent prepared-food tax, along with a full slate of candidates in the Nov. 4 general election.

As the News & Observer reported it would a couple weeks ago, City Hall is inviting Durham schoolchildren to name the Operation Green Light mascot.

Duke University has set up a website to answer questions from its employees related to their retirement plans and the current economic meltdown.

Check it out here. 

N.C. Central University and several other of North Carolina's historically black universities are featured this month in a higher education trade publication.

In it, NCCU gets some pub for Chancellor Charlie Nelms' ongoing quality service initiative as well as the recent opening of the BRITE facility.  

There's an interesting media story simmering over at Duke. This might be quite a lot of inside baseball interesting primarily to media folks, but I think it's worth a mention.

Duke has tweaked its policy governing the open portion of its trustee meetings. The Duke Chronicle has reported on it, and you can read about it here and here.

Since Duke is a private institution, it can essentially do what it wants in terms of open governance and decision-making. That's the law.

Fallen prosecutor Mike Nifong filed a document this week asking again for a federal judge to send back to bankruptcy court the lawsuit that three exonerated Duke lacrosse players filed against him.

In mid-September, the three plaintiffs -- Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann -- asked a judge to keep their malicious prosecution claims against Nifong in federal civil court.

The lawyers have been arguing back and forth -- mostly in briefs -- for months about which court should hear the claims. As time has progressed, the tone of the arguments — and the expressions of indignation — have grown sharper.

Fact: Romance novels are some of the most popular items that the Durham County Library lends out each year.

(I think that means they are not just a guilty pleasure anymore, but something people love to talk about.)

So get out your favorite love stories and join the Durham County Library on Sunday at the second annual Romance Tea, where four local romance authors will talk about how they craft their stories, and what makes a good one.

In case you missed it: The tram that has for 30 years ferried folks back and forth between Duke's hospitals and its outpatient clinics is being retired.

Read on.