Former White House Chief of Staff and former UNC president Erskine Bowles will speak tonight in Duke's Page Auditorium along with U.S. Senator Alan Simpson (Wyoming) on their ideas for reigning in the federal budget. The discussion will air tomorrow night and Friday night on UNC-TV.

Bowles and Simpson are co-chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a budget commission started by President Obama in Februrary 2010.

The event at Duke, "Decision Time: Bowles, Simpson and the Federal Budget," is part of the Sanford School's Terry Sanford Distinguished Lecture series, which brings notable speakers to Duke's campus. UNC-TV will record the event in its entirety and then air it as two "North Carolina Now" programs at 7:30 p.m. on January 19 and 20.

Philip Bennett, a Duke public policy professor and managing edior of the PBS series "Frontline," will moderate the discussion.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Duke University, known for its advocacy of global warming and environmental sciences, is adding "fracking" to its repertoire and holding a conference next week on the topic in Durham.

The Jan. 9 conference, free to the public, comes in the wake of a study issued last year by Duke scientists linking fracking to contamination of drinking water in Pennsylvania. The Duke study, incidentally, was roundly criticized by the oil and gas industry as biased and unsound, criticisms that are likely to be repeated at next week's conference.

Duke's conference, which will consider the environmental and social implications of fracking, is designed to bring together advocates and critics of fracking. The term refers to hydraulic fracturing, a technology that involves pumping water and chemicals deep into the ground under high pressure to release natural gas trapped in prehistoric shale rock formations.

The issue is gaining prominence in this state, where an estimated 1,400 square miles of shale rock are believed to hold several decades of natural gas supplies, mostly centered around Lee, Moore and Chatham counties.  Supporters of fracking say it's the best option for tapping a clean-burning fossil fuel as an alternative to imported oil and dirty coal.

View Academy Road @ Duke University Road in a larger map

NCDOT traffic engineers are planning changes that should make drivers more alert to the dangers of a sharp curve in Durham where five people have died in high-speed crashes since 1992.

Matthew Grape, a Duke University senior, was killed Sept. 15 when a car driven by a fellow student crashed into trees near a curve on N.C. 751 (Academy Road) just south of Duke University Road.  The speed limit is 35 mph, but investigators said the car was traveling at 70 mph. 

Four other people died in two crashes at the same spot in the 1990s, in cars going faster than 80 mph.  Alcohol was involved in all three crashes.

Kelly L. Becker, a regional DOT traffic engineer, recommended today that DOT install three black-on-yellow arrow chevrons on the outside of the curve, replacing one there now.  She recommended two new signs to  remind northbound drivers that they are approaching the curve, and the relocation of an existing curve-ahead sign to provide more advance warning for southbound drivers.

"I think this will provide more visibility for that curve," Becker said. "It is a pretty sharp curve."

Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business announced today that it is assisting a university in Kazakhstan in creating its own business school.

The agreement between Duke and Nazarbayev University is a consulting arrangement where some Fuqua faculty members will teach classes within the program during the first few years.

NU will grant its own degrees. The MBA program at Nazarbayev University is expected to launch in September 2012.

Fuqua currently has a presence in Dubai, London, New Delhi, China and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Duke's relationship with NU is a result of Fuqua’s involvement in Russia, which began in 2008.

"2 Broke Girls" (8:30 tonight, CBS) isn't as hilarious as "Bridesmaids" but if you saw and you liked that movie, you should like this crass, edgy sitcom. It's like "Two and a Half Men" with chicks.

Max (Kat Dennings) is a tough working-class waitress who ends up rooming and starting a business with Caroline (Beth Behrs), a bankrupt heiress, spawned by a Bernie Madoff type. Caroline annoys, then wins over Max; because she has been rich and is educated, Caroline's more hopeful, offering Max some inspiration. I liked Dennings more than Behrs, but they both worked in their roles.

Listen for the Duke sex joke delivered by co-star Garrett Morris.

Chief financial officers aren't expecting a double-dip recession but they're still not optimistic about the U.S. economy, according to a Duke University/CFO Magazine survey of 996 CFOs.

The quarterly survey from public and private companies around the world found that business spending is expected to grow, though more slowly than last quarter, and that hiring will continue albeit at a sluggish pace.

Internet search giant Google talked up its partnership with Duke University today in a blog post detailing the company's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.

Google seeks out green projects to offset the greenhouse gas emissions its operations produce.

Among those projects is a hog farm in Yadkin County where the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative has built a waste management system that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and produces electricity.

"Through this pilot, Duke is showing how these projects can make economic sense for North Carolinians and lead to dramatic reductions in emissions over the long term," wrote Jolanka Nickerson, the program manager for Google's Carbon Offsets Team. "We hope technologies like this can scale across the U.S. and world."

Google, like other Internet companies, has been criticized by some environmentalists for the amount of electricity it uses and how much greenhouse gases it is responsible for producing.
 

A Blue Devil is taking charge at Apple.

Tim Cook, the technology company's new CEO, earned an MBA from Duke University in 1988 and was a Fuqua scholar.

Sports fans take note: The Alabama native also has an engineering degree from Auburn University, and his loyalties reportedly are tied mostly to the Tigers.

Apple announced late Wednesday that Cook, 50, has replaced its iconic CEO Steve Jobs, who has battled health issues for years. Cook became acting CEO in January, and has overseen day-to-day operations since 2007 when he was promoted to chief operating officer.

Cook also has ties to Big Blue. He joined Apple in 1998 from Compaq Computer, but had previously spent 12 years at IBM, mostly at that company's massive campus in Research Triangle Park.

From Duke Office of News & Communications

For the fourth consecutive year, Duke has been named as one of the best colleges in the country to work for by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

After an independent survey of employees for the 2011 "Great Colleges to Work For" program, Duke earned high marks for its commitment in five workplace categories. Duke was among colleges highlighted for programs and achievements in:

• Professional/ career development programs (Employees given opportunity to develop skills and understand requirements to advance in careers).
• Facilities, workspaces and security (Facilities adequately meet needs, appearance of campus is pleasing and the institution takes steps to provide a secure environment).
• Job satisfaction (Provides insight into satisfaction with job fit, autonomy, resources).
• Work/life balance (Policies give employees flexibility to manage personal lives).
• Supervisor/department chair relationship (Supervisor makes expectations clear, solicits ideas).

This year, 310 colleges participated in the program, and Duke was one of 111 institutions that received recognition in various categories.

Duke University's Fuqua School of Business has tapped deputy dean William Boulding, right, to be its new top executive for the next two years.

Boulding replaces Blair Sheppard, who has served as Fuqua's dean since 2007. Sheppard will step down Aug. 1 to oversee fundraising and business development for Duke Kunshan University, the school's massive new campus in China, which is scheduled to open in Fall 2012.

Sheppard will continue to teach in Fuqua’s Global Executive MBA program and to serve as chairman of Duke CE, the corporate education venture he created and led as CEO for seven years before his appointment as dean.