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"UNC releases public records after judge’s ruling

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)—North Carolina has released documents showing a group of Tar Heel football players accumulated more than $13,000 in parking citations over a 31/2-year period.

The school released the documents Thursday, a day after the state Court of Appeals denied the school’s request to delay the release of those records pending an appeal. A Wake County Superior Court judge had ruled in April that the school withheld documents it should have provided to requesting media outlets covering the NCAA investigation into the football program.

The documents show that the players combined for 395 citations between March 2007 and August 2010, though the records don’t specify which players received each violation. The citations ranged in penalty from $5 for improperly displaying a parking permit to $250 for parking in a fire lane or in a handicapped parking space.

The total amount of the citations was $13,18..............................................."

"..................................The school also released hundreds of pages of phone records of head coach Butch Davis, athletic director Dick Baddour and former assistant coach John Blake, who resigned in September. Blake’s friendship to late NFL agent Gary Wichard became a focus of the NCAA probe into improper benefits and academic misconduct.

Blake’s attorneys have confirmed Wichard loaned money to Blake, but they characterized the transactions as one friend helping another through tough financial times.

Wichard died in March from diabetes and pancreatic cancer. Less than two weeks earlier, investigators with the North Carolina Secretary of State’s offices issued a search warrant for financial records connected to Wichard and his California-based firm—Pro Tect Management LLC—as part of its probe whether the states sports agent laws were broken.

The university had previously released partially redacted phone records for Blake, which showed a long line of calls or text messages to Wichard’s cell or office lines.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/n ... olina-ncaa" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Why the parking tickets matter

North Carolina finally released parking ticket information and phone records to the local media after losing a motion to stay in the Court of Appeals.

The shiny object everyone seems to be focusing on is the amount of citations and the amount owed. Make no mistake, 395 citations totaling $13,155 between March 2007 and August 2010 will raise a few eyebrows.

A common reaction to the news has been, "what's the big deal?" It certainly makes sense. I was popped for parking violation on NC State's and North Carolina's campus during my college years. Then there is the quirky way parking tickets are sometimes cheaper than actually buying a permit.

At first glance, it's a minor issue.

Here's where folks need to look at the big picture. While North Carolina insists every car was registered to a player, parent, grandparent or fellow student, there is interest in the car's history.

Who purchased the car? How much did the car cost? The types of questions that could ultimately lead to nothing or provide more pieces to the NCAA investigation puzzle.

Then there is the matter of players like Greg Little having multiple license plates or how one player racked up 93 violations and changed plates 9 times.

Bottom line -- the media is fishing through public document requests. That's how the Columbus Dispatch uncovered the shenanigans at Ohio State.

Unfortunately for North Carolina, the university has done itself a disservice by fighting battles they can't win. FERPA only protects so much.

And that's what is so bothersome about UNC's stall tactic. They are wasting taxpayer money and an insane amount of time over misguided principle. At worst, North Carolina looks like they have something to hide. At best, UNC is pulling the jerk move just because they can."
http://www.wralsportsfan.com/voices/blogpost/9739188/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ho Hum.

There's more here with their top recruiter and assistant who resigned last Sept. There's a reason the've been able to bring in these top recruiting classes since Butch Davis arrived in 07' (UNC had a nation high 9 players drafted this past draft)
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/0 ... tacts.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Final results of their investigation from last yr:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/0 ... layer.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thing is, with JMU playing them Sept 3rd, I would love to see UNC get in more hot water & have more suspensions from either agent contacts or the parking tickets investigation (if it turns out some of those vehicles weren't legit purchases).